Influence of Sump on Containment Thermal Hydraulics: Synthesis of the TOSQAN Tests

Abstract

During the course of a severe accident in a nuclear power plant, water can be collected in the sump containment through steam condensation on walls, cooling circuit leak, and by spray systems activation. Therefore, the sump can become a place of heat and mass exchanges through water evaporation and steam condensation, which influences the distribution of hydrogen released in containment during nuclear core degradation. The objective of this paper is to present the analysis of semi-analytical experiments on sump interaction between containment atmosphere for typical accidental thermal hydraulic conditions in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). Tests are conducted in the TOSQAN facility developed by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire in Saclay. The TOSQAN facility is particularly well adapted to characterize the distribution of gases in a containment vessel. A tests’ grid was defined to investigate the coupled effect of the sump evaporation with wall condensation, for air steam conditions, with noncondensable gases (He, SF6), and for steady and transient states (two depressurization tests).