Experiments to investigate the effect of water in the cavity on direct containment heating (DCH) in the Surtsey Test Facility: The WC-1 and WC-2 tests

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:5459805

Allen, M D; Pilch, M; Griffith, R O ^[1]; Nichols, R T ^[2]

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1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
2. Ktech Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The goal of the wet cavity (WC) test series was to investigate the effect of water in a reactor cavity on direct containment heating (DCH). The WC-1 experiment was performed with a dry cavity to obtain baseline data for comparison to the WC-2 experiment. WC-2 was conducted with water 3 cm deep (11.76 kg) in a 1:10 linear scale model of the Zion reactor cavity. The initial conditions for the experiments were similar. For both experiments the molten core debris was simulated by a thermitically generated melt formed from 50 kg of iron oxide/aluminum/chromium powders. After the charge was ignited, the debris was melted by the chemical reaction and was forcibly ejected through a nominal 3.5 cm hole into the scaled reactor cavity by superheated steam at an initial driving pressure of 4.58 MPa. The peak pressure increase in the containment due to the high-pressure melt ejection (HPME) was 0.272 MPa in WC-1 and 0.286 MPa in WC-2. The total amount of hydrogen generated in the experiments was 145 moles of H{sub 2} in WC-1 and 179 moles of H{sub 2} in WC-2. The total mass of debris ejected into the containment was identical for both experiments. These results suggest that water in the cavity slightly enhanced DCH.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: NRC; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5459805
• Report Number(s): SAND-91-1173; ON: DE92013679
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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