THE METHOD OF CORIUM COOLING IN A CORE CATCHER OF A LIGHT-WATER NUCLEAR REACTOR
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31489/2022No3/69-77Keywords:
corium, severe accident, core catcher, VCG-135 test-bench, Lava-B facility, safety, hydrogen generation, steam exposureAbstract
During the development of a severe accident at nuclear power plant with a core melting, corium is formed.
One of the main barriers preventing outflow of corium into the environment is a melt localization device or a melt
trap. The melt trap must accept and prevent the corium parameters from exceeding critical values, ensuring its
retention in a controlled volume and cooling. For this reason, melt traps are subject to serious requirements
regarding cooling methods to ensure effective containment of the melt in the core of a nuclear reactor. In the
presented article, experimental studies of the interaction between corium and water, which was supplied to the
surface of the corium in a melt trap for its cooling, were analyzed. As a result of the work, a number of significant
problems associated with the low efficiency of this cooling method were identified, and possible ways to eliminate
them were considered. A solution is proposed for optimizing the method of corium cooling in a melt trap, as well
as for the scope of research on the possibility of implementing the proposed method in practice and analyzing its
effectiveness using the VCG-135 test-bench and the Lava-B facility.
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