Investigation on the sodium leak accident of Monju; Sodium leak test simulating the Monju leak

Shimoyama, Kazuhito ; Nishimura, Masahiro ; Usami, Masayuki; Miyahara, Shinya  ; Miyake, Osamu; Tanabe, Hiromi

Sodium fire experiments were carried out two times using the Sodium Fire Test Rig (SOFT-1) in the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp (PNC) as a part of works to research the cause of the accident in secondary main cooling system of Monju. The purposes of these experiments are to confirm the leak rate and leakage form of sodium from damaged thermometer, to confirm the damage to the piping insulating structure around the thermometer and to the flexible tube, and to compare the temperature history of the signal from the thermometer between the experiments and Monju. In the experiments 56(2)g/sec was obtained as the leak rate under the condition of ensuring the leakage pass in the simulated thermometer. This leak rate was corrected to 53g/sec to take account of manufacturing error of the theemometer between the experiment and Monju. In calculation of this leak rate, it is assumed that the annulus size of thermometer well tip is a nominal distance and pressure value to the leakage sodium is 1.65kg/cmG, which was the maximum one during the leakage of Monju. Concerning the leakage form, connection condition between the thermometer and flexiblc tube affected the dropping style of the leaking sodium especially in its initial behavior. For the connection condition of the thermometer and flexible tube at the beginning of the experiments, the first experiment was started removing the connection to simulate the post accident observation results of Monju, while the second one was started in connected condition. In the second experiment, the connection condition became to be equal with the initial state of the first experiment 17 seconds after the beginning of thc leak ; the cap nut which fixed the flexible tube to the elbow connector came off. Until the connection came off, the typical leakage form was the dispersion from the elbow connector as a droplet and the flow penetrating the covering of the flexible tube as a streamline, while after the ...