User's manual for CONTAIN 1.1: A computer code for severe nuclear reactor accident containment analysis

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Abstract

The CONTAIN 1.1 computer code is an integrated analysis tool used for predicting the physical, chemical, and radiological conditions inside a containment building following the release of radioactive environment. CONTAIN 1.1 is the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's principal best-estimate, mechanistic containment analysis code for severe accidents. CONTAIN 1.1 is intended to replace the earlier CONTAIN 1.0, which was released in 1984. The purpose of this User's Manual is to provide a basic understanding of the features and models in CONTAIN 1.1 so that users can prepare reasonable input and understand the output and its significance for particular applications. Besides input instructions, the User's Manual also contains brief descriptions of the models. CONTAIN 1.1 is a highly flexible and modular code that can run problems that are either quite simple or highly complex. An important aspect of CONTAIN is that the interactions among thermal-hydraulic phenomena, aerosol behavior, and fission product behavior are taken into account. Both light water reactors and liquid metal reactors can be modeled with CONTAIN 1.1, though many of the sodium-specific models are not documented in this report (a separate CONTAIN-LMR supplement serves this purpose). The code includes atmospheric models for steam/air thermodynamics, intercell flows, condensation/evaporation on structures and aerosols, aerosol behavior, and gas combustion. It also includes models for reactor cavity phenomena such as core-concrete interactions and coolant pool boiling. Heat conduction in structures, fission product decay and transport, radioactive heating, and the thermal-hydraulic and fission product decontamination aspects of engineered safety features are also modeled. To the extent possible, the best available models for severe accident phenomena have been incorporated into CONTAIN, but it is intrinsic to the nature of severe accident analysis that significant uncertainty exists regarding numerous phenomena. In those cases, sensitivity studies can be performed with CONTAIN by means of user-specified input parameters. Thus, the code can be viewed as a tool designed to assist the knowledgeable reactor safety analyst in evaluating the consequences of specific modeling and parameter assumptions.

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