• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• 제41권5호
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• pp.617-648
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• 2009

Under the government supported long-term nuclear R&D program, the severe accident research program at KAERI is directed to investigate unresolved severe accident issues such as core debris coolability, steam explosions, and hydrogen combustion both experimentally and numerically. Extensive studies have been performed to evaluate the in-vessel retention of core debris through external reactor vessel cooling concept for APR1400 as a severe accident management strategy. Additionally, an improvement of the insulator design outside the vessel was investigated. To address steam explosions, a series of experiments using a prototypic material was performed in the TROI facility. Major parameters such as material composition and void fraction as well as the relevant physics affecting the energetics of steam explosions were investigated. For hydrogen control in Korean nuclear power plants, evaluation of the hydrogen concentration and the possibility of deflagration-to-detonation transition occurrence in the containment using three-dimensional analysis code, GASFLOW, were performed. Finally, the integrated severe accident analysis code, MIDAS, has been developed for domestication based on MELCOR. The data transfer scheme using pointers was restructured with the modules and the derived-type direct variables using FORTRAN90. New models were implemented to extend the capability of MIDAS.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제25권12호
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• pp.1887-1897
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• 2001

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) launched an intermediate scale steam explosion experiment named "Test for Real Corium Interaction with water (TROI)" using reactor material to investigate whether the molten reactor material would lead to energetic steam explosion when interacted wish cold water at low pressure. The melt-water interaction experiment is performed in a pressure vessel with the multi-dimensional fuel and water pool geometry. The novel concept of cold crucible technology, where powder of the reactor material in a water-cooled cafe is heated by high frequency induction, is firstly implemented for the generation of molten fuel. In this paper, the lest facility and cold crucible technology are introduced and the results or the first series of tests were discussed. The 5 kg of molten ZrO$_2$jet was poured into the 67cm deep water pool at 30 ∼ 95 $\^{C}$. Either spontaneous steam explosions or quenching was observed. The morphology of debris and pressure wave profiles clearly indicate the differences between the two cases.