Study on the Equivalence of Metallic-Cerium-Simulated Uranium-Aerosol Generation under Fire

Abstract

Uranium aerosols are released from uranium-containing materials in high-temperature environments caused by nuclear accidents or other processes. Research on the generation characteristics of uranium aerosols under such conditions is an important part of nuclear-safety analysis. In this experiment, the similarity between metal cerium aerosols and uranium material aerosols was evaluated from the aspects of particle size distribution and source term. Combined with the experiment data, the effect of air flow rate and sampling time is discussed. The calculation result of the air release fraction (ARF) is 6.07 × 10−3–4.8 × 10−2, and the respirable fraction (RF) is 0.810–0.978, respectively, showing that the size distribution of particles and ARF of the cerium aerosol are different from the results of the uranium aerosols in the literature, while the RF is similar to the results obtained by using the uranium–niobium alloy in the literature.