Study on Hydrogen Migration in Small Water Leak of Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor

Abstract

Steam generator is a key component for realizing the heat exchange between the secondary sodium circuit and the tertiary circuit water in the sodium-cooled fast reactor. Any tiny crack of the heat-transfer tube in the steam generator may lead to the contact of water and sodium, resulting in the sodium-water reaction and the generation of hydrogen, reaction heat and other corrosive products, which further corrode the break and the adjacent tubes. In order to effectively curb the further development of small leak, timely detection of the occurrence of sodium-water reactions is particularly important. With the background of the small leak sodium water reaction caused by the crack of the steam generator heat transfer tube, in this paper the migration behavior of hydrogen in the secondary sodium circuit is analyzed, based on the mass, momentum and energy conservation equations, and the concentration of hydrogen in the secondary sodium circuit is numerically calculated one-dimensionally. The results show that the hydrogen concentration at a certain point in the circuit increases with the increase of water leaking time as a whole, when the water injection is intermittent, the hydrogen concentration at a certain point in the circuit fluctuates periodically and the basal concentration becomes higher and higher, which provides a reference for the arrangement of the secondary loop small leak detection system.