Controlling and cooling core melts outside the pressure vessel

Abstract

For future reactors, the control and cooling of ex-vessel corium melts is under consideration to increase the passive safety features even for very unlikely severe accidents. In this context, different research activities are studying ex-vessel corium behaviour and control, including the implementation of a core cooling device outside the reactor pressure vessel in order to prevent basement erosion and to maintain the integrity of the containment. This paper describes current research on key phenomena which must be understood and quantified to be finally controlled by the cooling device. These are the release of corium melt from the pressure vessel, the temporary retention of the melt in the reactor cavity until melt through of the gate, spreading of the melt on a large surface, and finally the cooling and solidification of the melt by direct water contact. The experiments use high temperature melts which are similar to corium melts. Where necessary, models are developed to transfer the results to reactor scale.