In this paper, we are interested in modelling the flow of the coolant (water) in anuclear reactor core. To this end, we use a monodimensional low Mach number modelsupplemented with the stiffened gas law. We take into account potential phase transitionsby a single equation of state which describes both pure and mixture phases. In someparticular cases, we give analytical steady and/or unsteady solutions which providequalitative information about the flow. In the second part of the paper, we introduce twovariants of a numerical scheme based on the method of characteristics to simulate thismodel. We study and verify numerically the properties of these schemes. We finally presentnumerical simulations of a loss of flow accident (LOFA) induced by a coolant pump tripevent.