Experimental discussion on fragmentation mechanism of molten oxide discharged into a sodium pool

Abstract

In a probable scenario for core disruptive accidents of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs), it is foreseen that molten core material would be discharged into lower sodium plenums through control rod guide tubes. Such material relocation might lead to a considerable thermal load on lower structures of the reactor vessels, while it has been suggested that in SFRs, as soon as the molten core material is discharged into coolant, it might be fragmented into smaller particles by fuel-coolant interactions and thus efficiently cooled in the reactor vessels. Hence, understanding of the fragmentation is crucial for achieving in-vessel retention of molten core material in SFRs. In this paper, based on the experimental results of a series of fragmentation tests, where around 10 kg of molten alumina (Al2O3) was discharged into a sodium pool (depth: 1.3 m, diameter: 0.4 m, temperature: 673 K) through a duct (inner diameter: 40mm to 63 mm) by using an experimental facility at National Nuclear Center of the Republic of Kazakhstan, dominant mechanisms for the fragmentation are discussed. In the present tests, mass median diameters of solidified Al2O3 particles were around 0.3 mm, which were comparable to the values predicted using conventional hydrodynamic-instability theories. However, even though the conventional theories predict that particle size becomes smaller with the increase of Weber number, such tendency was not observed in the present tests. Taking into account that in the present tests, the distances for fragmentation of molten Al2O3 were evaluated to be approximately 60 % to 70 % below the values predicted using an existing representative correlation which regards hydrodynamic instabilities as a dominant fragmentation mechanism, the observed independence on Weber number confirms a mechanism that before hydrodynamic instabilities sufficiently grow to induce fragmentation, thermal phenomena such as local coolant vaporization and resultant vapor expansion significantly accelerate fragmentation in SFRs.

Keywords

• sodium-cooled fast reactors
• core disruptive accidents
• in-vessel retention
• molten core material
• fragmentation