Development of Natural Circulation Analytical Model in Super-COPD Code and Evaluation of Core Cooling Capability in Monju During a Station Blackout

The capability of natural circulation for core cooling has been evaluated in detail for a station blackout (SBO) event induced by an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami hit. The evaluation was prompted by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station of Tokyo Electric Power Company. The plant dynamics computer code Super-COPD was used for the evaluation, which has been validated by analyses of preliminary test results on the natural circulation in Monju. As a result, it was concluded that natural circulation of the sodium coolant will enable the decay heat from the core to be removed under such an SBO condition.