Reactor Materials Program probability of indirectly--induced failure of L and P reactor process water piping

摘要

The design basis accident for the Savannah River Production Reactors is the abrupt double-ended guillotine break (DEGB) of a large process water pipe. This accident is not considered credible in light of the low applied stresses and the inherent ductility of the piping material. The Reactor Materials Program was initiated to provide the technical basis for an alternate credible design basis accident. One aspect of this work is to determine the probability of the DEGB; to show that in addition to being incredible, it is also highly improbable. The probability of a DEGB is broken into two parts: failure by direct means, and indirectly-induced failure. Failure of the piping by direct means can only be postulated to occur if an undetected crack grows to the point of instability, causing a large pipe break. While this accident is not as severe as a DEGB, it provides a conservative upper bound on the probability of a direct DEGB of the piping. The second part of this evaluation calculates the probability of piping failure by indirect causes. Indirect failure of the piping can be triggered by an earthquake which causes other reactor components or the reactor building to fall on the piping or pull it from its supports. Since indirectly-induced failure of the piping will not always produce consequences as severe as a DEGB, this gives a conservative estimate of the probability of an indirectly- induced DEGB. This second part, indirectly-induced pipe failure, is the subject of this report. Failure by seismic loads in the piping itself will be covered in a separate report on failure by direct causes. This report provides a detailed evaluation of L reactor. A walkdown of P reactor and an analysis of the P reactor building provide the basis for extending the L reactor results to P reactor.