Analysis of the Methods Utilized in OXIDE-3

摘要

OXIDE-3 is an evolving code developed to analyze the transient response of certain state variables of a High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) during an accident involving the inleakage of steam and/or air into the helium primary coolant system. Primary tasks of the code are to calculate the primary coolant constituents as a function of time, their resultant chemical interaction with the graphite fuel elements, and their possible egress into the containment building. The report takes a critical look at certain aspects of the problem solving methods implemented in OXIDE-3 and gives estimates of the expected accuracy. Attendant to the latter finding, some of the calculated output may require careful interpretation since programmatical warnings are not given when an accuracy limitation is exceeded. The code has been used at BNL in an investigation to calculate the full power steady state impurity concentrations in the primary coolant system as a function of steam leak rate, steam graphite reaction rate, and the effective diffusion constant of steam in graphite. The results are in reasonable agreement with those obtained from the steady state oxidation code GOPTWO. (ERA citation 04:003361)