Sensitivity Analysis of Pressure Response in Containment Cooled by Natural Circulation

Passive containment air cooling system(PAS) is a very important system of modularized small nuclear power plants, which is the key part in the design of the containment. This system can ensure that the pressure is below the design limit and guarantee the integrity of the containment. This paper analyzes the sensitivity of 13 parameters that may influence the containment pressure response, using the Latin hypercube sampling(LHS). The results showed that the initial temperature in the containment and the temperature of the environment are most sensitive to the pressure response. In this paper, the sensitivity analysis of the containment pressure is carried out by using a general best estimate software and a statistical analysis method in the first time. This result can support the design of the containment, the safety analysis and the safety review.