Cladding oxidation during air ingress. Part II: Synthesis of modelling results

•A state-of-the-art for air oxidation modelling in the frame of severe accident is done.•Air oxidation models from main severe accident codes are detailed.•Simulations from main severe accident codes are compared against experimental results.•Perspectives in terms of need for further model developme...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of nuclear energy 2016-07, Vol.93, p.18-27
Main Authors: Beuzet, E., Haurais, F., Bals, C., Coindreau, O., Fernandez-Moguel, L., Vasiliev, A., Park, S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents
Air
Cladding
Cladding oxidation
Modelling
Nitriding
Nuclear power generation
Oxidation
PARAMETER
Physics
QUENCH
Ruthenium
Severe accident code
Synthesis
Zirconium
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•A state-of-the-art for air oxidation modelling in the frame of severe accident is done.•Air oxidation models from main severe accident codes are detailed.•Simulations from main severe accident codes are compared against experimental results.•Perspectives in terms of need for further model development and experiments are given. Air ingress is a potential risk in some low probable situations of severe accidents in a nuclear power plant. Air is a highly oxidizing atmosphere that can lead to an enhanced Zr-based cladding oxidation and core degradation affecting the release of fission products. This is particularly true speaking about ruthenium release, due to its high radiotoxicity and its ability to form highly volatile oxides in a significant manner in presence of air. The oxygen affinity is decreasing from the Zircaloy cladding, fuel and ruthenium inclusions. It is consequently of great need to understand the phenomena governing cladding oxidation by air as a prerequisite for the source term issues in such scenarios. In the past years, many works have been done on cladding oxidation by air under severe accident conditions. This paper with in addition the paper “Cladding oxidation during air ingress – Part I: Synthesis of experimental results” of this journal issue aim at assessing the state of the art on this phenomenon. In this paper, the modelling of air ingress phenomena in the main severe accident codes (ASTEC, ATHLET-CD, MAAP, MELCOR, RELAP/SCDAPSIM, SOCRAT) is described in details, as well as the validation against the integral experiments QUENCH-10, QUENCH-16 and PARAMETER-SF4. A full review of cladding oxidation by air is thus established.
ISSN:0306-4549
1873-2100
DOI:10.1016/j.anucene.2015.12.031