A review on clogging of recirculating steam generators in Pressurized-Water Reactors

Guangze Yang (1) , Véronique Pointeau (1) , Etienne Tevissen (1) , Alexandre Chagnes (2)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)
2 IRCP - Institut de Recherche de Chimie Paris

Corrosion product deposits in the secondary side of nuclear power plant steam generators may result in Tube Support Plate (TSP) clogging and tube fouling. Magnetite has an inverse solubility above 150C, which favours iron precipitation when temperature increases. Flashing and electrokinetics are two strengthening processes for precipitation in TSP clogging. Surface chemistry of magnetite particles was discussed to understand its' interaction with TSP. Particle deposition by boiling was identified as the limiting process by performing numerical applications with nominal conditions. Guidelines drawn from this review for investigating specifically TSP clogging consist on conducting representative condition experiments and electrokinetics investigations.

Keywords: Iron; Reactor conditions; High-temperature-high-pressure test loop; Modelling studies; Precipitation; Magnetite particle deposition

Domains: Nuclear Theory [nucl-th]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]

Guangze Yang, Véronique Pointeau, Etienne Tevissen, Alexandre Chagnes. A review on clogging of recirculating steam generators in Pressurized-Water Reactors. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2017, 97, pp.182-196. ⟨10.1016/j.pnucene.2017.01.010⟩. ⟨cea-02388689⟩