Evaluation of the Impact That PARs Have on the Hydrogen Risk in the Reactor Containment: Methodology and Application to PSA Level 2

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology and its application to a Level 2 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA-2), to evaluate the impact of the Passive Autocatalytic Recombiners (PARs) on the hydrogen risk in the reactor containment in case of a severe accident. Among the whole set of accidental scenarios calculated in the framework of the PSA-2, nine have been selected as representative in terms of the in-vessel hydrogen production rate and in-vessel total produced hydrogen mass. Five complementary scenarios have been added as representative of the core reflooding situations. For this set of selected scenarios the evolution of the conditions in the containment (i.e., pressure, temperature, and composition) during the in-vessel phase of the accident has been evaluated by means of a lumped parameter approach. The use of spray systems in the containment has also been considered as well as the presence of recombiners. Moreover, the ignition by recombiners of the flammable atmosphere has been considered.