Study on severe accident fuel dispersion behavior in the advanced neutron source reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States); and others
Core flow blockage events have been determined to represent a leading contributor to core damage initiation risk in the Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) reactor. During such an accident, insufficient cooling of the fuel in a few adjacent blocked coolant channels out of several hundred channels, could also result in core heatup and melting under full coolant flow condition in other coolant channels. Coolant inertia forces acting on the melt surface would likely break up the melt into small particles. Under thermal-hydraulic conditions of ANS coolant channel, micro-fine melt particles are expected. Hat transfer between melt particle and coolant, which affects the particle breakup characteristics, was studied. The study indicates that the thermal effect on melt fragmentation seems to be negligible because the time corresponding to the breakup due to hydrodynamic forces is much shorter than the time for the melt surface to solidify. The study included modeling and analyses to predict transient behavior and transport of debris particles throughout the coolant system. The transient model accounts for the surface forces acting on the particle that results from the pressure variation on the surface, inertia, virtual mass, viscous force due to the relative motion of the particle in the coolant, gravitation, and resistance due to inhomogenous coolant velocity radially across piping due to possible turbulent coolant motions. The results indicate that debris particles would reside longest in heat exchangers because of lower coolant velocity there. Also they are entrained and move together in a cloud.
- Research Organization:
- US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Systems Technology; American Nuclear Society (ANS), La Grange Park, IL (United States); American Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, NY (United States); American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), New York, NY (United States); Canadian Nuclear Society, Toronto, ON (Canada); European Nuclear Society (ENS), Bern (Switzerland); Atomic Energy Society of Japan, Tokyo (Japan); Japan Society of Multiphase Flow, Kyoto (Japan)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 111446
- Report Number(s):
- NUREG/CP-0142-Vol.4; CONF-950904-Vol.4; ON: TI95017080; TRN: 95:021634
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 7. international topical meeting on nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics (Nureth-7), Saratoga Springs, NY (United States), 10-15 Sep 1995; Other Information: PBD: Sep 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the 7th International Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal-Hydraulics NURETH-7. Sessions 17-24; Block, R.C.; Feiner, F. [American Nuclear Society, La Grange Park, IL (United States)]; PB: 825 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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