Corium viscosity modelling above liquidus temperature

In the event of a highly unlikely core melt-down accident in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), scenarios in which the reactor pressure vessel fails and the core melt mixture (called corium) relocates into the reactor cavity, cannot be excluded. The Nuclear Reactor Division (CEA/DRN) has undertaken i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nuclear engineering and design 1997-12, Vol.178 (3), p.269-277
Main Authors: Sudreau, F., Cognet, G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Exact sciences and technology
Fission nuclear power plants
Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy
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Summary:In the event of a highly unlikely core melt-down accident in Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR), scenarios in which the reactor pressure vessel fails and the core melt mixture (called corium) relocates into the reactor cavity, cannot be excluded. The Nuclear Reactor Division (CEA/DRN) has undertaken investigations in order to model rheological corium behaviour. In this paper, a bibliographic study and a comparison with available data lead to the conclusion that the viscosity of corium containing UO 2, ZrO 2 and Zr can be calculated, at the melting point, with a good accuracy using the Andrade formula. Above the liquidus temperature, the correlations, proposed for pure metals and metal alloys, between the activation energy and the melting temperature are not available in the case of urania and thus cannot be used to calculate liquid corium activation energy. To overcome this problem, in this paper we propose to use a mole fraction averaged activation energy. Nevertheless, this last point needs to be validated.
ISSN:0029-5493
1872-759X
DOI:10.1016/S0029-5493(97)00137-4