Abstract: In order to study the transient safety characteristics of Xi’an Pulsed Reactor (XAPR) when unexpected reactivity insertion accident happened and shutdown system failed, the main mathematical models were established based on the specific core structure and operation conditions of XAPR. Meanwhile, a transient thermal-hydraulic code called TSAC-XAPR was developed to analyze the safety characteristics of XAPR. The TSAC-XAPR code was then used to simulate the reactivity insertion accident of XAPR. The calculation results indicate that when XAPR operating under rated power, reactor can reach a new steady state for reactivity insertion accident, depending on its inherent feedback mechanism. When XAPR operating under high power, especially above the critical power, key thermal-hydraulic parameters of reactor will tend to oscillate and can’t reach a steady state again for reactivity insertion accident. Besides, it is also found that different reactivity insertion modes will only affect the variation trend during the phase of reactivity insertion instead of the final value at steady state.