LEAK FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF THE PRIMARY COOLANT FOR THE MOLTEN SALT REACTOR

摘要

The primary coolant leak is one of the important initiating events in the probabilistic safety assessment of the molten salt reactor (MSR) because the radionuclides are released directly when a leak occurs even though the freeze may happen. This paper evaluated the primary coolant leak frequency of the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) and the frequency distribution with the leak area to provide a reference for MSR, by means of the calculation and comparing to the observation and other reactors. The results show that the main components where the primary coolant leak occurs in MSRE are the flange and valve, and the overall frequency is an order higher than that of the light water reactor (LWR). In addition, the change of frequency with the leak area is an exponential distribution. Compared to LWR, the above results imply a conservative MSR primary coolant leak frequency. The results also indicate that in the design phase of MSR, it should simplify the piping design and reduce especially the leak possibility of the flanges and valves.