ATWS Sensitivity Studies to Support PSA Success Criteria

The limiting anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) event is the heatup transient caused by a reduction of heat removal capability by the secondary side of the plant. In order to evaluate the AP1000 plant behavior following an ATWS, loss of normal feedwater ATWS event has been analyzed using the LOFTRAN code. Several sensitivity studies are also performed to address some key issues, such as steam dump capacity, core makeup tank (CMT) characteristic and boron coefficient, reactor coolant pumps (RCPs) availability, startup feedwater system (STS) availability and steam generator (SG) heat flux. The results of the analysis show that in order to mitigate the consequence of such an accident, the steam dump should be isolated and RCP should trip on CMT actuation signal.