Dynamic modeling and controlling of a spent nuclear fuel storage pool under periodic operation and station blackout conditions

•Dynamic modeling of a spent nuclear fuel storage pool (SFSP) is presented.•The dynamic behavior of SFSP under the periodic operation as well as abnormal conditions are modeled and investigated.•The SFSP's dynamics model is validated against the experimental data under periodic operation and abnormal conditions.•Three scenarios of spent fuel inventory conditions and the future prediction of SFSP capability are investigated.•The calculation of the occurrence time of the key events for each scenario is analyzed. The Fukushima incident provided the lesson that spent fuel storage pool (SFSP) require adequate analysis of thermal performance. This study aims to investigate the dynamic behaviors of SFSP under normal- and station blackout (SBO) conditions. The well-mixed approach is utilized and considers the heat and mass transfer processes in developing a dynamic model using Stella software. This dynamic model is validated against experimental data undertaken at the G.A. Siwabessy Reactor SFSP. The model’s predicted results are in good agreement with the experimental data, with a mean relative deviation (MRD) of 0.0085%–0.042% and a mean squared error (MSE) of 0.0006–0.0047. The simulation results show that the cooling system requires additional time operation in the planned addition of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The survival time under SBO without human intervention for current inventory, addition of 120 SNF, and 60-years reactor operation are 142 days, 104.4 days, and 45.8 days, respectively.