Results of an out-of-pile experiment for fragmentation of a simulated molten core material discharged into a shallow sodium pool

Matsuba, Kenichi  ; Kamiyama, Kenji  ; Ganovichev, D. A.*; Baklanov, V. V.*

In Core Disruptive Accidents of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors, molten core material would be discharged through control rod guide tubes into the inlet coolant plenums beneath the rector cores. The inlet coolant plenums have quite limited heights and sodium inventories. Therefore, in the inlet plenums, molten core material with a jet-like shape would impinge on the bottom of the plenum before it breaks up into fragments. In this study, to clarify fragmentation behavior in a shallow sodium pool whose height and volume are so limited that jet impingement on the bottom is expected, an out-of-pile experiment discharging molten alumina into a sodium pool was conducted. Although a small amount of alumina agglomeration was found on the bottom plate (steel disk) installed in the sodium pool, most of the molten alumina was fragmented into debris particles. Results obtained in the present experiment suggest that molten core material is fragmented and quenched even in a shallow sodium pool.