Assessing the Performance of Point and Two‐Point Kinetics Models in Simulating the Control Rod Drop Accident in VVER‐1000 Reactors

Reactivity‐initiated accidents (RIAs), such as the control rod drop accident (CRDA), are classified as design‐basis accidents (DBAs) in the final safety analysis report (FSAR) of a nuclear power plant (NPP), and investigating these events is crucial. Therefore, point kinetics (PK) and two‐point kinetics (2PK) models of a real VVER‐1000 reactor have been simulated and evaluated to assess their ability to reproduce CRDA dynamics. Additionally, the simulation results of these two models have been validated against the FSAR data for a rapid‐transient CRDA to examine various dynamic parameters. The reactor model was simulated in MATLAB Simulink. The model results show small deviations compared to the FSAR. Therefore, a PK model provides a reasonable degree of accuracy in the evaluation of such fast‐paced incidents.