A Study on sodium-concrete reaction in presence of internal heating

Kawaguchi, Munemichi   ; Miyahara, Shinya*  ; Uno, Masayoshi*

Sodium-concrete reaction (SCR) is one of the important phenomena during severe accidents in sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) owing to the generation of large sources of hydrogen and aerosols in the containment vessel. In this study, SCR experiments with an internal heater were performed to investigate the chemical reaction beneath the internal heater (800C), which was used to simulate the obstacle and heating effect on SCR. Furthermore, the effects of the internal heater on the self-termination mechanism were discussed. The internal heater on the concrete hindered the transport of Na into the concrete. Therefore, Na could start to react with the concrete at the periphery of the internal heater, and the concrete ablation depth at the periphery was larger than under the internal heater. The high Na pool temperature of 800C increased largely the Na aerosol release rate, which was explained by Na evaporation and hydrogen bubbling, and formed the porous reaction product layer, whose porosity was 0.54-0.59 from the mass balance of Si and image analyzing EPMA mapping. They had good agreement with each other. The porous reaction products decreased the amount of Na transport into the reaction front. The Na concentration around the reaction front became about 30wt.% despite the position of the internal heater. It was found that the Na concentration condition was one of the dominant parameters for the self-termination of SCR, even in the presence of the internal heater.