The Euratom-Rosatom ERCOSAM-SAMARA projects on containment thermal-hydraulics of current and future LWRs for severe accident management
- Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland)
- CEA, DEN, STMF, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France)
- Forschungszentrum Juelich, 52425 Juelich (Germany)
- Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, 1755 Le Petten (Netherlands)
- Karlsruher Institut fuer Technologie, 76131 Karlsruhe (Germany)
- Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, 2251 Speakman Drive, Mississauga, ON L5K 1B2 (Canada)
- Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire, 92269 Fontenay-aux-Roses (France)
- Nuclear Safety Inst., Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 115191 (Russian Federation)
- JSC Afrikantov OKB Mechanical Engineering, Nizhny Novgorod, 603074 (Russian Federation)
- SSC RF-IPPE, 1 Bondarenko Sq., Obninsk, Kaluga Region, 249033 (Russian Federation)
During a postulated severe accident with core degradation, hydrogen would form in the reactor pressure vessel mainly due to high temperatures zirconium-steam reaction and flow together with steam into the containment where it will mix with the containment atmosphere (steam-air). The hydrogen transport into the containment is a safety concern because it can lead to explosive mixtures through the associated phenomena of condensation, mixing and stratification. The ERCOSAM and SAMARA projects, co-financed by the European Union and the Russia, include various experiments addressing accident scenarios scaled down from existing plant calculations to different thermal-hydraulics facilities (TOSQAN, MISTRA, PANDA, SPOT). The tests sequences aim to investigate hydrogen concentration build-up and stratification during a postulated accident and the effect of the activation of Severe Accident Management systems (SAMs), e.g. sprays, coolers and Passive Auto-catalytic Recombiners (PARs). Analytical activities, performed by the project participants, are an essential component of the projects, as they aim to improve and validate various computational methods. They accompany the projects in the various phases; plant calculations, scaling to generic containment and to the different facilities, planning pre-test and post-test simulations are performed. Code benchmark activities on the basis of conceptual near full scale HYMIX facility will finally provide a further opportunity to evaluate the applicability of the various methods to the study of scaling issues. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22106072
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP '12: 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, Chicago, IL (United States), 24-28 Jun 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 23 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants - ICAPP '12| 2799 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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