Post-Test simulations of BTF-107: an in-reactor loss-of-coolant test with flow blockage and rewet

The Blowdown Test Facility (BTF) located in the NRU reactor at chalk river Laboratories is the principal experimental tool for the Canadian in-reactor safety research program. This dedicated facility was designed for performing integrated ″all effects″ tests on CANDU**-type fuel to generate data for verifying and assessing Canadian safety analysis codes and models. This paper briefly describes the first BTF experiment, designated BTF-107, and presents the results of post-test thermal hydraulics and fuel behavior simulations of this experiment. The thermal hydraulics simulations, performed using the ELOCA.Mk5 code, give estimates of the thermo-mechanical and fission-product release behavior of the fuel during the course of the transient. The results of these simulations illustrate the capabilities of the CATHENA and ELOCA codes to model the processes involved in this severe high-temperature transient, and indicate possible areas for future improvement of these codes.