Simulation of rod ejection accident in a WWER-1000 Nuclear Reactor by using PARCS code

The rod ejection accident is defined as the postulated rupture of a control rod drive mechanism housing that results in the complete ejection of a rod cluster control assembly from the reactor core. The consequences of the mechanical failure are a rapid positive reactivity insertion and an increase in the local power peaking with high local energy deposition in the fuel assembly, accompanied by an initial pressure increase in the reactor cooling system. In this study, the REA has been simulated in a WWER-1000 reactor by using WIMSD-5B and PARCS v2.7 codes. First, macroscopic cross-sections have been calculated for various types of fuel assemblies using WIMSD-5B. Results have been fed as input to PARCS v2.7 code. Steady-state, transient and specially thermal–hydraulic feedback blocks of PARCS code have been handled in this simulation. Finally, results have been compared with Final Safety Analysis Report of WWER-1000 reactor. The results show a great similarity and confirm the ability of PARCS code in simulation of transient accidents