Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1998 International RERTR Meeting

DEVELOPMENT OF AN EMERGENCY CORE COOLING SYSTEM FOR THE
CONVERTED IEA-R1m RESEARCH REACTOR

Walmir Maximo Torres, Benedito Dias Baptista Filho and Daniel Kao Sun Ting
Departamento de Tecnologia de Reatores
Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN-CNEN/SP)
Travessa R no. 400 - Cidade Universitária
São Paulo - SP - Brasil - CEP : 05508-900

Email: wmtorres@net.ipen.br

ABSTRACT

This present work describes the development program carried out in the design and construction of the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) for the IEA-R1m Research Reactor, including the system design, the experiments performed to validate the design, manufacturing, installation and commissioning. The experiments were performed in two phases. In the first phase, the spray flow rate and distribution were measured, using a full scale mock-up of the entire core, to establish the spray header geometry and specifications. In the second phase, a test section was fitted with electrically heated plates to simulate the fuel plates. Temperature measurements were carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system to keep the temperatures below the limiting value. The experimental results were shown to the licensing authorities during the certification process. The main difficulties during the system assembly are also described.