An Investigation of Debris Configuration and Melt-Water Interaction in Steam Explosion Experiments using $ZrO_2$

원자로 물질의 $ZrO_2$를 이용한 증기폭발 실험에서 용융물 거동 및 데브리의 분포

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) launched an intermediate scale steam explosion experiment named Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI) using reactor material to investigate whether the corium would lead to energetic steam explosion when interacted with cold water at low pressure. The melt-water interaction is confined in a pressure vessel with the multi-dimensional fuel and water pool geometry. The cold crucible technology, where the mixture of powder in a water-cooled cage is heated by high frequency induction, is employed. In this paper, results of the first series of tests ($TROI-1{\sim}5$) were discussed. The ZrO2 jets with 5kg mass and 5cm diameter were poured into the 67cm deep water pool at $30{\sim}95^{\circ}C$. Either spontaneous steam explosions or quenching was observed. The morphology of debris and pressure wave profiles clearly indicates the each case.