Abstract
Background: To find out the leak characteristic of research reactor 'HANARO' building in a typhoon condition Materials and Methods: MELCOR code which normally is used to simulate severe accident behavior in a nuclear power plant was used to simulate the leak rate of air and fission products from reactor hall after the shutdown of the ventilation system of HANARO reactor building. For the simulation, HANARO building was designed by MELCOR code and typhoon condition passed through Daejeon in 2012 was applied. Results and Discussion: It was found that the leak rate is $0.1%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ of air, $0.004%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ of noble gas and $3.7{\times}10^{-5}%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ of aerosol during typhoon passing. The air leak rate of $0.1%{\cdot}day^{-1}$ can be converted into $1.36m^3{\cdot}hr^{-1}$, but the design leak rate in HANARO safety analysis report was considered as $600m^3{\cdot}hr^{-1}$ under the condition of $20m{\cdot}sec^{-1}$ wind speed outside of the building by typhoon. Conclusion: Most of fission products during the maximum hypothesis accident at HANARO reactor will be contained in the reactor hall, so the direct radiation by remained fission products in the reactor hall will be the most important factor in designing emergency preparedness for HANARO reactor.