Consideration of radiolytic behavior in diluted and concentrated systems of seawater for computational simulation of hydrogen generation

Nagaishi, Ryuji ; Inoue, Masao; Hino, Ryutaro; Ogawa, Toru

Since seawater has been used as a coolant for reactors and spent fuel pools in broken reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi NPS accident, radioactive contaminated water emitted following the accident has contained salt content of seawater at high concentrations, different from that at TMI-2 accident. Radiolysis of seawater leading to hydrogen generation and corrosion has been simulated and reported by several groups. However, the proposed radiolysis models cannot be always applied to water radiolysis at the wide range of salt concentrations present in the NPS, mainly because primary yields of radiolysis products of water and radiation-induced reactions are dependent on the salt concentration. In this study, the radiolytic behavior in diluted and concentrated systems of seawater was considered on the basis of results in steady state and pulse radiolysis experiments, in which the above salt effects were demonstrated from the obtained results.