Fragmentation of a Single and Continuous Molten Copper Droplets Penetrating a Sodium Pool
- Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo (Japan)
- Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, 1646 Abiko Abiko-shi, Chiba-ken 270-1194 (Japan)
The progression of hypothetical core disruptive accidents in metal fuel cores is strongly affected by exclusion of molten metal fuel from the core region due to molten fuel-coolant interaction (FCI). As a basic study of FCI in metal fuel fast reactors, the present paper focuses on the fragmentation and the characteristics of the debris produced during a series of experiments of a single molten copper droplet from 1 g to 5 g and continuous droplets with a total mass from 16 g to 26 g, which penetrated a sodium pool at instantaneous contact interface temperatures from 1005 deg. C far below the freezing point: 1084 deg. C to 1342 deg. C. The results show that the mass median diameters (D{sub m}) of different mass copper droplets both a single droplet and continuous ones penetrating a sodium pool differ very little, nearly the same when the instantaneous contact interface temperatures (T{sub i}) are above the freezing point, and also the droplets are fragmented finely with their increasing T{sub i}s; but when T{sub i}s are below the freezing point, the D{sub m}s of different mass copper droplets scatter a little widely. These results basically show the fragmentation of molten fuel, which is important to assure the termination of accidents, is promising in the sodium space in the upper and lower plenums. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- The ASME Foundation, Inc., Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 20997025
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 14. International conference on nuclear engineering (ICONE 14), Miami - Florida (United States), 17-20 Jul 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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