Hydrogen risk analysis for a generic nuclear containment ventilation system

Hydrogen safety issue in a ventilation system of a generic nuclear containment is studied. In accidental scenarios, a large amount of burnable gas mixture of hydrogen with certain amount of oxygen is released into the containment. In case of high containment pressure, the combustible mixture is further ventilated into the chambers and the piping of the containment ventilation system. The burnable even potentially detonable gas mixture could pose a risk to the structures of the system once being ignited unexpectedly. Therefore the main goal of the study is to apply the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) computer code – GASFLOW, to analyze the distribution of the hydrogen in the ventilation system, and to find how sensitive the mixture is to detonation in different scenarios. The CFD simulations manifest that a ventilation fan with sustained power supply can extinguish the hydrogen risk effectively. However in case of station blackout with loss of power supply to the fan, hydrogen/oxygen mixture could be accumulated in the ventilation system. A further study proves that steam injection could degrade the sensitivity of the hydrogen mixture significantly.