Journal of Energy Engineering (에너지공학)

The Korean Society for Energy (한국에너지학회)
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Numerical Evaluation of the Cooling Performance of a Core Catcher Test Facility

  • Lee, Dong Hun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University) ;
  • Park, Ik Kyu (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Yoon, Han Young (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Ha, Kwang Soon (Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) ;
  • Jeong, Jae Jun (School of Mechanical Engineering, Pusan National University)
  • Received : 2012.12.03
  • Accepted : 2013.03.11
  • Published : 2013.03.31
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Abstract

A core catcher is considered as a promising engineered system to stabilize the molten corium in the containment during a postulated severe accident in a nuclear power plant. Conceptually, the core catcher consists of a carbon steel body, sacrificial material, protection material, and engineered cooling channel. The cooling capacity of the engineered cooling channel should be guaranteed to remove the decay heat of the molten corium. The flow in ex-vessel core catcher is a combined problem of a two-phase flow in the engineered cooling channel and a single-phase natural circulation in the whole core catcher system. In this study, the analysis of the test facility for the core catcher using the CUPID code, which is a three-dimensional thermal-hydraulic code for the simulation of two-phase flows, was carried out to evaluate its cooling capacity.

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References

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