Recent numerical simulations and experiments on coolability of debris beds during severe accidents of light water reactors

Abstract

In the course of a severe accident in light water reactors with core degradation, so-called debris beds can be formed inside the reactor pressure vessel or in the reactor cavity. The strategy to analyse the coolability of such debris beds with both experiments and numerical simulations is discussed. The numerical simulations are carried out with MEWA (MElt WAter) code, being developed at the institute for the prediction of the thermal-hydraulic conditions inside a debris bed, including the prediction of dryout heat flux. The simulations show good agreement with experimental data of the DEBRIS experiments.