Experimental & analytical study of passive thermal sensing system developed for cooling water injection into AHWR core catcher

摘要

The Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is designed and developed to achieve large-scale use of thorium for the generation of commercial nuclear power. In post Fukushima scenario, incorporation of core catcher system (CCS) in all advanced nuclear reactors has become mandatory. One of the advanced features of AHWR is incorporation of core catcher system to retain and cool the molten core in beyond design basis accident (BDBA) to avoid damage to containment structures and activity spread to the soil, water and environment. To make CCS cooling fully passive, an innovative Passive Water Injection (PAWAN) scheme has been recently designed, developed and tested. The PAWAN scheme senses the core melt accident and injects water from Gravity Driven Water Pool (GDWP) passively into the core catcher. A mesh of Passive Thermal Sensors (PTS) developed in-house, has been deployed for sensing the core melt condition.