NRC
Reactor Safety Code User Information Exchange
Welcome to the NRC Reactor Safety Code User Information Exchange.
This site provides a web-based information and support site
for the Office of Research's reactor safety codes. This
system is intended for use by CAMP members, domestic users and
the NRC staff only.
The NRC uses computer codes to perform probabilistic risk assessments and evaluate thermal-hydraulic conditions,
severe accidents, fuel behavior, and reactor kinetics during
various operating and postulated accident conditions.
Results from applying the codes to these scenarios support decision-making
for risk-informed activities, the review of licensees' codes
and performance of audit calculations, and the resolution of
other technical issues. Code development is directed toward
improving the realism and reliability of code results and making
the codes easier to use.
The NRC and countries in the international nuclear community
have agreed to exchange technical information on thermal-hydraulic
safety issues related to reactor and plant systems. Under
the terms of their agreements, the NRC provides these member
countries with the latest versions of its thermal-hydraulic
systems analysis computer codes to help evaluate the safety
of planned or operating plants in each member's country.
To help ensure these analysis tools are of the highest quality
and can be used with confidence, the international partners
perform and document assessments of the codes for a wide range
of applications, including identification of code improvements
and error corrections. Thermal hydraulics codes are used to
analyze loss-of-coolant accidents, (LOCAs), and system transients
in light water nuclear reactors.
The NRC currently develops and maintains the following codes:
- TRACE: The
TRAC/RELAP Advanced
Computational Engine. A
modernized thermal-hydraulics code designed to consolidate
the capabilities of NRC's 3 legacy safety codes - TRAC-P,
TRAC-B and RELAP. It is able to analyze large/small
break LOCAs and system transients in both PWRs and BWRs. The
capability also exists to model thermal hydraulic phenomena
in both 1-D and 3-D space. This is NRC's flagship thermal-hydraulics
analysis tool.
- RELAP5:
Small break LOCA and system transient analysis tool for PWRs
or BWRs. It has the capability to model thermal hydraulic
phenomena in 1-D components.
- PARCS:
Purdue Advanced Reactor Core Simulator for reactor kinetics
simulation. The Purdue Advanced Reactor Core Simulator
(PARCS) is a computer code that solves the time-dependent
two-group neutron diffusion equation in three-dimensional
Cartesian geometry using nodal methods to obtain the transient
neutron flux distribution. The code may be used in the analysis
of reactivity-initiated accidents in light water reactors
where spatial effects may be important. It may be run in the
stand-alone mode or coupled to other NRC thermal-hydraulic
codes such as RELAP5 and TRACE. Through coupling with
TRACE, the capabilities for RAMONA, NRC's legacy kinetics
code are recovered.
- SNAP:
Symbolic Nuclear Analysis Package, SNAP, is a graphical user
environment designed to assist the NRC code user in all aspects
of input model development. This involves such tasks
as the 1) the actual development of code input decks, 2) executing
the models that have been developed, 3) visualizing the code
output, and 4) managing the history of new and old legacy
models alike.
- FRAPCON/FRAPTRAN:
FRAPCON is a computer code used for steady-state and mild
transient analysis of the behavior of a single fuel rod under
near-normal reactor operating conditions. FRAPTRAN is a computer
code used for transient and design basis accident analysis
of the behavior of a single fuel rod under off-normal reactor
operation conditions.
- MELCOR:
Integral Severe Accident Analysis Code: Fast Running, parametric
models
- ACGrace
- formerly called Xmgr5, this program is used for plotting
graphics for all NRC's major safety codes.
- SAPHIRE - Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability (SAPHIRE) is used for performing probabilistic risk assessments.
For questions about the content of this web site or suggestions
on how to improve it, please contact Christopher Murray at Christopher.Murray <at> nrc <dot> gov
or Joseph Staudenmeier at Joseph.Staudenmeier <at> nrc <dot> gov
|
