Experimental and analytical investigations of primary coolant pump coastdown phenomena for the Jordan Research and Training Reactor

•Core flow coastdown phenomena of a research reactor are investigated experimentally.•The experimental dataset is well predicted by a simulation software package, MMS.•The validity and consistency of the experimental dataset are confirmed.•The designed coastdown half time is confirmed to be well above the design requirement. Many low-power research reactors including the Jordan Research and Training Reactor (JRTR) are designed to have a downward core flow during a normal operation mode for many convenient operating features. This design feature requires maintaining the downward core flow for a short period of time right after a loss of off-site power (LOOP) accident to guarantee nuclear fuel integrity. In the JRTR, a big flywheel is installed on a primary cooling system (PCS) pump shaft to passively provide the inertial downward core flow at an initial stage of the LOOP accident. The inertial pumping capability during the coastdown period is experimentally investigated to confirm whether the coastdown half time requirement given by safety analyses is being satisfied. The validity and consistency of the experimental dataset are evaluated using a simulation software package, modular modeling system (MMS). In the MMS simulation model, all of the design data that affect the pump coastdown behavior are reflected. The experimental dataset is well predicted by the MMS model, and is confirmed to be valid and consistent. The designed coastdown half time is confirmed to be well above the value required by safety analysis results.wwwyoon@gmail.com