A full-station blackout at a nuclear power plant can lead to fuel failures and radiological release to the environment if there is a breach of the reactor vessel. For Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactors, the expected failure mechanism is through thermal stress concentration at the calandria vessel wall, and is thus influenced by local heat flux values. The current study uses computational fluid dynamics to simulate heat transfer, fluid flow, and crust formation within a CANDU geometry. Sensitivity to critical parameters, including the volumetric decay heat generation rate and the percentage of Zr oxidation is explored.

The results show that as the volumetric heat generation rate decreases, the crust is thicker, and the wall heat flux is lower. This suggests that the activation of mitigating measures that delay the accident progression result in more favorable outcomes. The percentage of Zr oxidation primarily influences the thermal conductivity, which impacts the crust formation and wall heat flux rates. Specifically, corium with a lower percentage of Zr oxidation has higher thermal conductivity, and thus lower heat transfer resistance. This results in lower corium temperatures, which reduces the radiation heat transfer from the top surface and also increases crust thickness. Higher rates of heat removal from the vessel wall thus occur. In contrast, a higher percentage of Zr oxidation results in lower thermal conductivity, which leads to lower wall heat flux and a thinner crust at the vessel wall. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of considering the effects of sensitivity parameters on the heat flux distribution in the event of severe accidents.