COMSORS: A light water reactor chemical core catcher

Conference · Mon Feb 24 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:474914

Forsberg, C W; Parker, G W; Rudolph, J C; Osborne-Lee, I W ^[1]; Kenton, M A ^[2]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States). Chemical Technology Div.
2. Creare Inc., Hanover, NH (United States)

The Core-Melt Source Reduction System (COMSORS) is a new approach to terminate lightwater reactor (LWR) core-melt accidents and ensure containment integrity. A special dissolution glass made of lead oxide (PbO) and boron oxide (B{sub 2}O{sub 3}) is placed under the reactor vessel. If molten core debris is released onto the glass, the following sequence happens: (1) the glass absorbs decay heat as its temperature increases and the glass softens; (2) the core debris dissolves into the molten glass; (3) molten glass convective currents create a homogeneous high-level waste (HLW) glass; (4) the molten glass spreads into a wider pool, distributing the heat for removal by radiation to the reactor cavity above or transfer to water on top of the molten glass; and (5) the glass solidifies as increased surface cooling area and decreasing radioactive decay heat generation allows heat removal to exceed heat generation.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-96OR22464
• OSTI ID: 474914
• Report Number(s): CONF-970607--7; ON: DE97004281
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
CONTAINMENT BUILDINGS
COOLING
CORE CATCHERS
DESIGN
GLASS
HEAT TRANSFER
MELTDOWN
MITIGATION
WATER COOLED REACTORS