Analysis of MBLOCA and LBLOCA success criteria in VVER-1000/V320 reactors: New proposals for PSA Level 1

The specific configuration of the safety systems in VVER-1000/V320 reactors allows a comprehensive study of the Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). In the present paper, a verification of the success criteria of the event trees headers for the medium and large break LOCA sequences is conducted. A detailed TRACEV5P5 thermal-hydraulic model of the reactor has been developed, including all safety systems. When analyzing the results of all sequences, some conservatism is observed in certain specific configurations as the success criterion of some headers is not consistent with the classic PSA level 1. Therefore, new proposals for the LOCA event trees are performed based on a reconfiguration of LOCA break ranges and the use of the expanded event trees approach.(c) 2023 Korean Nuclear Society, Published by Elsevier Korea LLC. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).