The triggering of steam explosions of single drops of pure and alloyed molten aluminum

Conference · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA)

OSTI ID:6371512

Nelson, L S; Fuketa, T; Eatough, M J; Vigil, F J ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab., Albuquerque, NM (USA)

When a hot liquid (fuel) comes into contact with a cold liquid (coolant), a variety of different fuel/coolant interactions (FCIs) can occur. For certain research on production reactors, the coolant of interest is water (either H{sub 2}O or D{sub 2}O), while the fuel is a molten alloy based mainly on aluminum and uranium. Aluminum-based melts have been shown to be explosive in many experiments performed by the aluminum industry and in several reactor experiments and accidents including NRX, SPERT, BORAX, etc. In the aluminum industry, steam explosions continue to result in property damage, personal injuries, and deaths. It is also known that certain alloying components, notably lithium, can enhance the strength of the explosions as well as the probability of their occurrence. To obtain quantitative information relating to the FCIs that might occur with uranium-aluminum fuel, a laboratory-scale experimental scoping study was begun at Sandia National Laboratories. The overall objective of this research program is to provide an understanding of the mechanism of steam explosions with the melt compositions expected in various hypothetical core meltdown accident scenarios in production reactors. In this program, it has been demonstrated that reproducible triggering of steam explosions with pure and alloyed aluminum can be achieved with both focused and unfocused shock waves generated with underwater electrical discharges.

• OSTI ID: 6371512
• Report Number(s): CONF-900608-; CODEN: TANSA; TRN: 91-008355
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (USA), Vol. 61; Conference: American Nuclear Society (ANS) annual meeting, Nashville, TN (USA), 10-14 Jun 1990; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
ISOTOPE PRODUCTION REACTORS
FUEL-COOLANT INTERACTIONS
REACTOR SAFETY
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
ALLOY NUCLEAR FUELS
ALUMINIUM ALLOYS
CORIUM
EXPLOSIONS
MELTDOWN
MOLTEN METAL-WATER REACTIONS
PROBABILITY
REACTOR CORE DISRUPTION
REACTOR SAFETY EXPERIMENTS
SHOCK WAVES
STEAM
TRANSIENTS
ACCIDENTS
ALLOYS
ENERGY SOURCES
FUELS
IRRADIATION REACTORS
MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
REACTOR ACCIDENTS
REACTOR MATERIALS
REACTORS
SAFETY
SOLID FUELS
220900* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Reactor Safety
220700 - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Plutonium & Isotope Production Reactors