Chemical interaction of CsOH vapor with UO and Fe-Zr melt

Nakajima, Kunihisa  ; Takano, Masahide 

At TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, it is estimated that considerable amounts of cesium still remain in the reactors from the analysis results using the severe accident analysis codes and the reverse analysis from contaminated water. Since cesium is known to form stable compounds with uranium and zirconium, chemisorption experiments with uranium dioxide pellets and iron-zirconium melts for cesium hydroxide vapor were carried out. As the results, formations of cesium uranate, CsUO, and cesium zirconate, CsZrO, were confirmed, indicating that cesium was chemisorbed on both of the uranium dioxide pellets and the iron-zirconium melts in an Ar-H-HO flow and an Ar-H flow, respectively. Therefore, it was considered that cesium released from fuel might be trapped by chemisorption with fuels and/or iron-zirconium melts during light water reactor severe accidents.