Analysis of BDBA sequences in a generic IRIS reactor using ASTEC code

Integral Severe Accident (SA) codes are aimed at providing an exhaustive coverage of all the main phenomena taking place in a core melt accident. Today, these deterministic codes have reached a high level of maturity for the simulation of operating reactors and the nuclear technical community is starting to extend their applicability to advanced reactor designs, as Small Modular Reactor (SMR). In the framework of the NUGENIA TA-2 ASCOM (ASTEC COMmunity) collaborative project, a generic input-deck based on the IRIS design has been developed for the ASTEC code. The generic SMR ASTEC model has been already proved able to simulate the main thermal–hydraulic phenomena driving the passive mitigation of a SBLOCA in Design Basis Accident (DBA) conditions. The same initiator event, regarding the guillotine break of a Direct Vessel Injection (DVI) line, will be assumed for the simulation of beyond-design scenarios by considering the unavailability of selected passive safety systems. The results of the ASTEC simulations of four Beyond Design Basis Accidents (BDBAs) (study carried out with ASTEC V2.2, IRSN all rights reserved, [2021]) will be analyzed and discussed against the reference DBA sequence in the present paper. This study is aimed at proving the first insights about the capability of the ASTEC model of a generic IRIS reactor to be used in BDBA and in SA analyses, if significant core degradation takes place. In addition, it characterizes the role played by each safety system in SMR passive mitigation strategy and give the possibility to characterize the phenomenologies specific of SMR designs.