Plinius prototypic corium experimental platform: major results and future works
Abstract
For 20 years, CEA has developed R&D programs on several severe accident phenomena. Experiments are performed with prototypic corium (with depleted uranium) on the PLINIUS platform of the CEA Cadarache. In a first part, we present the main current facilities of the PLINIUS platform: VITI facility that enables to measure thermo-physical properties of corium; KROTOS FCI facility for the study of Fuel Coolant (water) Interaction, that features one-dimensional behaviour of premixing and explosion propagation and energetics, and allows a clear characterization of mixing (melt and void distribution), escalation, and propagation behaviour; KROTOS aerosol facility for the study of aerosols release; and VULCANO facility where we can conduct tests on interaction of molten corium with the pit concrete (MCCI) - with induction heating, corium spreading and corium ceramic material interaction or bottom flooding (COMET). Then, we browse the major results we already obtained on prototypic corium behavior and properties regarding in-vessel and ex-vessel severe accident phenomenologies. In a last part, we describe the equipment improvements (as visualization techniques of the corium or induction heating systems) or new experimental devices that will be carried out on the PLINIUS platform in order to enhance our knowledge on premixing process during FCI and corium cooling by top or bottom flooding and to increase the reliability and instrumentation of our experiments.
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)
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