Publications Details
Audit calculations with CORCON-MOD 3 of the duration of superheat in NUREG/CR-5423
Analyses have shown that early rupture of the Mark-I boiling water reactor containment-by the direct action of core debris depends strongly on the time that core debris is superheated above its liquidus. The analyses of the duration of superheat in the core debris are compared to predictions obtained with the CORCON-MOD 3 computer code. The predicitons of this computer code as functions of the core debris mass, composition, and initial superheat are used to create a polynomial response surface. This response surface is used in a Monte Carlo analysis to produce probability distributions for the duration of superheat in core debris in the drywell of a Mark-I containment. It is concluded that to a high level of confidence (>90%) the duration of superheating predicted with the CORCON-MOD 3 code is less than what has been used in the analyses of the threats to the Mark-I containment liner. Based on these results, to the extent superheat duration dictates the threat to the liner, analyses in NUREG/CR-5423 would appear to overestimate the threat to the liner in comparison to threats estimated using the predictions of the duration of superheating obtained with CORCON-MOD 3.