Nuclear Engineering and Technology

  • 제56권1호
  • /
  • Pages.283-291
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  • 2024
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  • 1738-5733(pISSN)
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  • 2234-358X(eISSN)
한국원자력학회 (Korean Nuclear Society)
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Characteristics of debris resulting from simulated molten fuel coolant interactions in SFRS

  • E. Hemanth Rao (Homi Bhabha National Institute, Training School Complex) ;
  • Prabhat Kumar Shukla (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research) ;
  • D. Ponraju (Homi Bhabha National Institute, Training School Complex) ;
  • B. Venkatraman (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research)
  • 투고 : 2023.06.16
  • 심사 : 2023.09.30
  • 발행 : 2024.01.25
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초록

Sodium cooled Fast Reactors (SFR) are built with several engineered safety features and hence a severe accident such as a core melt accident is hypothetical with a probability of <10-6/ry. However, in case of such accidents, the mixture of the molten fuel and structural materials interacts with sodium. This phenomenon is known as Molten Fuel Coolant Interaction (MFCI) and results in fragmentation of the melt due to various instabilities. The fragmented particles settle as a debris bed on the core catcher at the bottom of the reactor vessel, and continue to generate decay heat. Characteristics of the debris particles play a vital role in heat transfer from the bed and need thorough investigation. The size, shape, and physical state of the debris depend on the associated fragmentation mechanism, superheating of the melt, and sodium temperature. Experiments have been conducted by releasing simulated corium, a molten mixture of alumina and iron generated by the aluminothermy process at ~2400 ℃ into liquid sodium, to study the fragmentation phenomena. After the experiment, the fragmented debris was retrieved and the particle size distribution was determined by sieve analysis. The debris was subjected to microscopic investigation for obtaining morphological characteristics. Based on the characteristics of debris, an attempt has been made to assess of fragmentation mechanism of simulated corium in sodium.

키워드

과제정보

Authors thank Mr. Sanjay Kumar Das, Mr. Lokesh, Mrs. Malarvizhi, Mr. S.S. Murthy, Ms. Hyma Kumari and Mr. Anandan for the experimental support. Authors acknowledge Mr. Vetrivendan for XRD analysis and Dr. S.R. Polaki for SEM. Authors thank ASME for permitting usage of part of the work published in proceedings of ICONE 28.

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