Fragmentation and cooling behavior of a simulated molten core material discharged into a sodium pool with limited depth and volume

Matsuba, Kenichi  ; Kato, Shinya  ; Kamiyama, Kenji  ; Akayev, A. S.*; Baklanov, V. V.*

In order to obtain experimental knowledge on fragmentation and cooling behavior of molten core material discharged into regions where the depth and volume of sodium are limited, a series of out-of-pile experiments using molten alumina as a simulant for molten core material was conducted. It was found that following mechanisms might be involved in the fragmentation and cooling behavior in a shallow sodium pool: (1) FCI which occurs at location of impingement of the molten jet on the bottom plate promotes fragmentation. (2) If there is a sufficient amount of sodium as a heat sink outside the region, heat exchange by sodium flow in and out due to vapor expansion and condensation suppresses the sodium temperature rise. (3) This temperature suppression contributes to effective cooling of molten core material. In the future study, in order to confirm the mechanisms which was clarified in this study, analytical evaluation of the experimental result will be carried out using a simulation tool.