Kinetic study on eutectic melting process between boron carbide and stainless steel in sodium-cooled fast reactor

Kikuchi, Shin  ; Sakamoto, Kan*; Takai, Toshihide  ; Yamano, Hidemasa   

In a postulated severe accidental condition of sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), eutectic melting between boron carbide (BC) as control rod element and stainless steel (SS) as control rod cladding or related structure may occur. Thus, behavior of BC-SS eutectic melting is one of the phenomena to evaluate the core disruptive accidents in SFR. In order to clarify the kinetic feature of BC-SS eutectic melting process in the interface, the thinning test for SS crucibles using the pellets of BC or SS with low BC concentration were performed to obtain the rate constant with dependence of BC concentration against SS. It was found that the rate constants of eutectic melting between SS and SS low BC concentration were smaller than that of BC-SS in the high temperature range. Besides, the rate constant of eutectic melting between SS and BC containing SS became small when decreasing the BC concentration against SS.