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MELCOR Accident Analysis for ARIES-ACT

Paul W. Humrickhouse, Brad J. Merrill

Fusion Science and Technology / Volume 64 / Number 2 / August 2013 / Pages 340-344

Safety, Environment, and Tritium Handling / Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 / dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A18100

We model a loss of flow accident (LOFA) in the ARIES-ACT1 tokamak design. ARIES-ACT1 features an advanced SiC blanket with LiPb as coolant and breeder, a helium cooled steel structural ring and tungsten divertors, a thin-walled, helium cooled vacuum vessel, and a room temperature water-cooled shield outside the vacuum vessel. The water heat transfer system is designed to remove heat by natural circulation during a LOFA. The MELCOR model uses time-dependent decay heats for each component determined by 1-D modeling. The MELCOR model shows that, despite periodic boiling of the water coolant, that structures are kept adequately cool by the passive safety system.