Analysis of the reference accidental sequence for safety assessment of LLCB TBM system

Safety analysis of the reference accidental sequence has been carried out for Lead Lithium cooled Ceramic Breeder (LLCB) Test Blanket Module (TBM) system: India's prototype of DEMO blanket concept for testing in International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The accidental event analyzed starts with a Postulated Initiating Event (PIE) of ex-vessel loss of first wall helium coolant due to guillotine rupture of coolant pipe with simultaneous assumed failure of plasma shutdown system. Three different variants of the sequences analyzed include simultaneous additional failures of TBM and ITER first wall, failure of TBM box resulting in to spilling of lead lithium liquid metal in to vacuum vessel and reactor trip on Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA) signal from TBM system. The analysis address specific reactor safety concerns, such as pressurization of confinement buildings, vacuum vessel pressurization, release of activated products and tritium during these accidental events and hydrogen production from chemical reactions between lead-lithium liquid metal and beryllium with water. An in-house customized computer code is developed and through these deterministic safety analyses the prescribed safety limits are shown to be well within limits for Indian LLCB-TBM design and it also meets overall safety goal for ITER. This paper reports transient analysis results of the safety assessment. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.