After the Fukushima accident, the public has expressed concern regarding the safety of nuclear power plants. This accident has strengthened the necessity for further improvement of safety in the design of existing and future nuclear power plants. Pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs) have a high level of defense-in-depth (DiD) philosophy to achieve the safety goal. It is necessary for designers to demonstrate the capability of decay heat removal and integrity of containment in a PHWR reactor for prolonged station blackout to avoid any release of radioactivity in public domain. As the design of PHWRs is distinct, its calandria vessel (CV) and vault cooling water offer passive heat sinks for such accident scenarios and submerged calandria vessel offers inherent in-calandria retention (ICR) features. Study shows that, in case of severe accident in PHWR, ICR is the only option to contain the corium inside the calandria vessel by cooling it from outside using the calandria vault water to avoid the release of radioactivity to public domain. There are critical issues on ICR of corium that have to be resolved for successful demonstration of ICR strategy and regulatory acceptance. This paper tries to investigate some of the critical issues of ICR of corium. The present study focuses on experimental investigation of the coolability of molten corium with and without simulated decay heat and thermal behavior of calandria vessel performed in scaled facilities of an Indian PHWR.
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April 2017
Research-Article
In-Calandria Retention of Corium in PHWR: Experimental Investigation and Remaining Issues
Sumit V. Prasad,
Sumit V. Prasad
Reactor Engineering Division,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: svprasd@barc.gov.in
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: svprasd@barc.gov.in
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A. K. Nayak
A. K. Nayak
Reactor Engineering Division,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: arunths@barc.gov.in
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: arunths@barc.gov.in
Search for other works by this author on:
Sumit V. Prasad
Reactor Engineering Division,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: svprasd@barc.gov.in
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: svprasd@barc.gov.in
A. K. Nayak
Reactor Engineering Division,
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: arunths@barc.gov.in
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre,
Trombay 400085, Mumbai, India
e-mail: arunths@barc.gov.in
1Corresponding author.
Manuscript received July 8, 2016; final manuscript received December 13, 2016; published online March 1, 2017. Assoc. Editor: Thambiayah Nitheanandan.
ASME J of Nuclear Rad Sci. Apr 2017, 3(2): 020909 (8 pages)
Published Online: March 1, 2017
Article history
Received:
July 8, 2016
Revised:
December 13, 2016
Citation
Prasad, S. V., and Nayak, A. K. (March 1, 2017). "In-Calandria Retention of Corium in PHWR: Experimental Investigation and Remaining Issues." ASME. ASME J of Nuclear Rad Sci. April 2017; 3(2): 020909. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4035691
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