Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1997 International RERTR Meeting

A Comparison of the RELAP5/MOD3 and PARET/ANL Codes with the Experimental
Transient Data from the SPERT-IV D-12/25 Series

W. L. Woodruff, N. A. Hanan and J. E. Matos
Argonne National Laboratory 
Argonne, Illinois 60439,USA

ABSTRACT

The results from the RELAP5/MOD3 and PARET/ANL codes are compared with the SPERT-IV series of experimental reactivity insertion transients. The PARET/ANL code provides conservative estimates of SPERT-IV experimental data for the midrange transients and for the more severe transients. The PARET results are similar to the results obtained earlier for the SPERT-I D-12/25 series of experiments. The RELAP5/MOD3 code (including the developmental version 3.2.1.2) gives results comparable to PARET for some midrange transients, but seriously diverges from the experimental data when significant boiling is present. Based on the results of this study, the use of the RELAP5 code for research reactor applications should be limited to transients that do not generate substantial boiling and voids. We hope to be able to resolve these differences in further work with the NRC staff and its contractors. The RELAP5 code would be a more useful tool for the analyses research reactor transients with the addition of suitable correlations for low pressures and plate type geometry.

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