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The overall objective of the current work is to carry out a scoping analysis to determine the impact of ATF on late phase accident progression; in particular, the molten core-concrete interaction portion of the sequence that occurs after the core debris fails the reactor vessel and relocates into containment. This additional study augments previous work by including kinetic effects that govern chemical reaction rates during core-concrete interaction. The specific ATF considered as part of this study is SiC-clad UO2.

This report is written to provide an overview of the Advanced Fast Reactor-100 in the requested format for a DOE technical review panel. This report was prepared with information that is responsive to the DOE Request for Information, DE-SOL-0003674 Advanced Reactor Concepts, dated February 27, 2012 from DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy, Office of Nuclear Reactor Technologies. The document consists of two main sections. The first section is a summary of the AFR-100 design including the innovations that are incorporated into the design. The second section contains a series of tables that respond to the various questions requested of the reactor design team from the subject DOE RFI.

The Natural convection Shutdown heat removal Test Facility (NSTF) is a large scale thermal hydraulics test facility that has been built at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). The facility was constructed in order to carry out highly instrumented experiments that can be used to validate the performance of passive safety systems for advanced reactor designs. The facility has principally been designed for testing of Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) concepts that rely on natural convection cooling for either air or water-based systems. Standing 25-m in height, the facility is able to supply up to 220 kW at 21 kW/m2 to accurately simulate the heat fluxes at the walls of a reactor pressure vessel. A suite of nearly 400 data acquisition channels, including a sophisticated fiber optic system for high density temperature measurements, guides test operations and provides data to support scaling analysis and modeling efforts. Measurements of system mass flow rate, air and surface temperatures, heat flux, humidity, and pressure differentials, among others; are part of this total generated data set. The following report provides an introduction to the top level-objectives of the program related to passively safe decay heat removal, a detailed description of the engineering specifications, design features, andmore » dimensions of the test facility at Argonne. Specifications of the sensors and their placement on the test facility will be provided, along with a complete channel listing of the data acquisition system.« less

The safe, reliable and economic operation of the nation’s nuclear power reactor fleet has always been a top priority for the United States’ nuclear industry. As a result, continual improvement of technology, including advanced materials and nuclear fuels, remains central to industry’s success. Decades of research combined with continual operation have produced steady advancements in technology and yielded an extensive base of data, experience, and knowledge on light water reactor (LWR) fuel performance under both normal and accident conditions. In 2011, following the Great East Japan Earthquake, resulting tsunami, and subsequent damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex, enhancing the accident tolerance of LWRs became a topic of serious discussion. As a result of direction from the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE) initiated an Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) Development program. The complex multiphysics behavior of LWR nuclear fuel makes defining specific material or design improvements difficult; as such, establishing qualitative attributes is critical to guide the design and development of fuels and cladding with enhanced accident tolerance. This report summarizes a common set of technical evaluation metrics to aid in the optimization and down selection of candidate designs. As used herein,more » “metrics” describe a set of technical bases by which multiple concepts can be fairly evaluated against a common baseline and against one another. Furthermore, this report describes a proposed technical evaluation methodology that can be applied to assess the ability of each concept to meet performance and safety goals relative to the current UO2 – zirconium alloy system and relative to one another. The resultant ranked evaluation can then inform concept down-selection, such that the most promising accident tolerant fuel design option(s) can continue to be developed for lead test rod or lead test assembly insertion into a commercial reactor within the desired timeframe (by 2022).« less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core/concrete interaction (MCCI) when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. However, due to the integral nature of these tests, several questions regarding the crust freezing behavior could not be adequately resolved. These questions include: (1) To what extent does water ingression into the crust increase the melt quench rate above the conduction-limited rate and how is this affected by melt composition and system pressure? (2) What is the fracture strength of the corium crust when subjected to a thermal-mechanical load and how does it depend upon the melt composition? A series of separate-effects experiments are being conducted to address these issues. The first employs an apparatus designed to measure the quench rate of a pool of corium ({approx} {phi} 30 cm; up to 20 cm deep). The main parameter to be varied in these more » quench tests is the melt composition since it is thought to have a critical influence on the crust cracking behavior which, in turn, alters quench rate. The issue of crust strength is being addressed with a second apparatus designed to mechanically load the crust produced by the quench tests. This apparatus measures the fracture strength of the crust while it is either at room temperature or above, the latter state being achieved with a heating element placed below the crust. The two apparatuses used to measure the melt quench rate and crust strength are jointly referred to as SSWICS (Small-Scale Water Ingression and Crust Strength). This report describes results of the sixth water ingression test, designated SSWICS-6. This test investigated the quenching behavior of a fully oxidized PWR corium melt containing 15 wt% siliceous concrete at a system pressure of 1 bar absolute. The report includes a description of the test apparatus, the instrumentation used, plots of the recorded data, and some rudimentary data reduction to obtain an estimate of the heat flux from the corium to the overlying water pool. « less

Although extensive research has been conducted over the last several years in the areas of Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) and debris coolability, two important issues warrant further investigation. The first issue concerns the effectiveness of water in terminating a CCI by flooding the interacting masses from above, thereby quenching the molten core debris and rendering it permanently coolable. This safety issue was investigated in the EPRI-sponsored Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program. The approach was to conduct large scale, integral-type reactor materials experiments with core melt masses ranging up to two metric tons. These experiments provided unique, and for the most part repeatable, indications of heat transfer mechanism(s) that could provide long term debris cooling. However, the results did not demonstrate definitively that a melt would always be completely quenched. This was due to the fact that the crust anchored to the test section sidewalls in every test, which led to melt/crust separation, even at the largest test section lateral span of 1.20 m. This decoupling is not expected for a typical reactor cavity, which has a span of 5-6 m. Even though the crust may mechanically bond to the reactor cavity walls, the weight of the coolant and themore » crust itself is expected to periodically fracture the crust and restore contact with the melt. Although crust fracturing does not ensure that coolability will be achieved, it nonetheless provides a pathway for water to recontact the underlying melt, thereby allowing other debris cooling mechanisms to proceed. A related task of the current program, which is not addressed in this particular report, is to measure crust strength to check the hypothesis that a corium crust would not be strong enough to sustain melt/crust separation in a plant accident. The second important issue concerns long-term, two-dimensional concrete ablation by a prototypic core oxide melt. As discussed by Foit the existing reactor material database for dry cavity conditions is solely one-dimensional. Although the MACE Scoping Test was carried out with a two-dimensional concrete cavity, the interaction was flooded soon after ablation was initiated to investigate debris coolability. Moreover, due to the scoping nature of this test, the apparatus was minimally instrumented and therefore the results are of limited value from the code validation viewpoint. Aside from the MACE program, the COTELS test series also investigated 2-D CCI under flooded cavity conditions. However, the input power density for these tests was quite high relative to the prototypic case. Finally, the BETA test series provided valuable data on 2-D core concrete interaction under dry cavity conditions, but these tests focused on investigating the interaction of the metallic (steel) phase with concrete. Due to these limitations, there is significant uncertainty in the partition of energy dissipated for the ablation of concrete in the lateral and axial directions under dry cavity conditions for the case of a core oxide melt. Accurate knowledge of this 'power split' is important in the evaluation of the consequences of an ex-vessel severe accident; e.g., lateral erosion can undermine containment structures, while axial erosion can penetrate the basemat, leading to ground contamination and/or possible containment bypass. As a result of this uncertainty, there are still substantial differences among computer codes in the prediction of 2-D cavity erosion behavior under both wet and dry cavity conditions. In light of the above issues, the OECD-sponsored Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction (MCCI) program was initiated at Argonne National Laboratory. The project conducted reactor materials experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following technical objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focused on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term 2-D core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Data from the various tests conducted as part of the program are being used to develop and validate models and codes that are used to extrapolate the experimental findings to plant conditions. Achievement of these technical objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs of future plants. The project completed three large scale CCI experiments to address the second technical objective defined above.« less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two program objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of satisfying these objectives, the Management Board (MB) approved the conduct of a third long-term 2-D Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) experimentmore » designed to provide information in several areas, including: (i) lateral vs. axial power split during dry core-concrete interaction, (ii) integral debris coolability data following late phase flooding, and (iii) data regarding the nature and extent of the cooling transient following breach of the crust formed at the melt-water interface. This data report provides thermal hydraulic test results from the CCI-3 experiment, which was conducted on September 22, 2005. Test specifications for CCI-3 are provided in Table 1-1. This experiment investigated the interaction of a fully oxidized 375 kg PWR core melt, initially containing 15 wt% siliceous concrete, with a specially designed two-dimensional siliceous concrete test section with an initial cross-sectional area of 50 cm x 50 cm. The sand and aggregate constituents for this particular siliceous concrete were provided by CEA as an in-kind contribution to the program. The report begins by providing a summary description of the CCI-3 test apparatus and operating procedures, followed by presentation of the thermal-hydraulic results. Detailed posttest debris examination results will be provided in a subsequent publication. Observations drawn within this report regarding the overall cavity erosion behavior may be subject to revision once the posttest examinations are completed, since these examinations will fully reveal the final cavity shape.« less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core/concrete interaction (MCCI) when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. However, due to the integral nature of these tests, several questions regarding the crust freezing behavior could not be adequately resolved. These questions include: (1) To what extent does water ingression into the crust increase the melt quench rate above the conduction-limited rate and how is this affected by melt composition and system pressure and (2) What is the fracture strength of the corium crust when subjected to a thermal-mechanical load and how does it depend upon the melt composition? A series of separate-effects experiments are being conducted to address these issues. The first employs an apparatus designed to measure the quench rate of a pool of corium ({approx}{phi}30 cm; up to 20 cm deep). The main parameter to be varied in these quenchmore » tests is the melt composition since it is thought to have a critical influence on the crust cracking behavior which, in turn, alters quench rate. The issue of crust strength will be addressed with a second apparatus designed to mechanically load the crust produced by the quench tests. This apparatus will measure the fracture strength of the crust while under a thermal load created by a heating element beneath the crust. The two apparatuses used to measure the melt quench rate and crust strength are jointly referred to as SSWICS (Small-Scale Water Ingression and Crust Strength). This report describes results of the third water ingression test, designated SSWICS-3. This test investigated the quenching behavior of a fully oxidized PWR corium melt containing 8 wt% limestone/common sand concrete at a system pressure of 4 bar absolute. The report includes a description of the test apparatus, the instrumentation used, plots of the recorded data, and some rudimentary data reduction to obtain an estimate of the heat flux from the corium to the overlying water pool.« less

Although extensive research has been conducted over the last several years in the areas of Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) and debris coolability, two important issues warrant further investigation. The first issue concerns the effectiveness of water in terminating a CCI by flooding the interacting masses from above, thereby quenching the molten core debris and rendering it permanently coolable. This safety issue was investigated in the Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program. The approach was to conduct large scale, integral-type reactor materials experiments with core melt masses ranging up to two metric tons. These experiments provided unique, and for the most part repeatable, indications of heat transfer mechanism(s) that could provide long term debris cooling. However, the results did not demonstrate definitively that a melt would always be completely quenched. This was due to the fact that the crust anchored to the test section sidewalls in every test, which led to melt/crust separation, even at the largest test section lateral span of 1.20 m. This decoupling is not expected for a typical reactor cavity, which has a span of 5-6 m. Even though the crust may mechanically bond to the reactor cavity walls, the weight of the coolant and the crust itself is expected to periodically fracture the crust and restore contact with the melt. The fractured crust will provide a pathway for water to recontact the underlying melt, thereby allowing other debris cooling mechanisms to proceed and contribute to terminating the core-concrete interaction. Thus, one of the key aims of the current program was to measure crust strength to check the hypothesis that a corium crust would not be strong enough to sustain melt/crust separation in a plant accident. The second important issue concerns long-term, two-dimensional concrete ablation by a prototypic core oxide melt. As discussed by Foit, the existing reactor material database for dry cavity conditions is solely one-dimensional. Although the MACE Scoping Test was carried out with a two-dimensional concrete cavity, the interaction was flooded soon after ablation was initiated to investigate debris coolability. Moreover, due to the scoping nature of this test, the apparatus was minimally instrumented and therefore the results are of limited value from the code validation viewpoint. Aside from the MACE program, the COTELS test series also investigated 2-D CCI under flooded cavity conditions. However, the input power density for these tests was quite high relative to the prototypic case. Finally, the BETA test series provided valuable data on 2-D core concrete interaction under dry cavity conditions, but these tests focused on investigating the interaction of the metallic (steel) phase with concrete. Due to these limitations, there is significant uncertainty in the partitioning of energy dissipated for the ablation of concrete in the lateral and axial directions under dry cavity conditions for the case of a core oxide melt. Accurate knowledge of this 'power split' is important in the evaluation of the consequences of an ex-vessel severe accident; e.g., lateral erosion can undermine containment structures, while axial erosion can penetrate the basemat, leading to ground contamination and/or possible containment bypass. As a result of this uncertainty, there are still substantial differences among computer codes in the prediction of 2-D cavity erosion behavior under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Thus, a second key aim of the current program was to provide the necessary data to help resolve these modeling differences. In light of the above issues, the OECD-sponsored Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction (MCCI) program was initiated at Argonne National Laboratory. The project conducted reactor materials experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following technical objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focused on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in previous integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term 2-D core-concrete interaction under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Data from the various tests conducted as part of the program is used to develop and validate models and codes that eventually form the basis for extrapolating the experimental findings to plant conditions. Achievement of these technical objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs of future plants. The project completed a total of eleven reactor material tests to investigate melt coolability and 2-D core-concrete interaction mechanisms under both wet and dry cavity conditions.

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following two technical objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of the first program objective, the Small-Scale Water Ingression and Crust Strength (SSWICS) test series more » has been initiated to provide fundamental information on the ability of water to ingress into cracks and fissures that form in the debris during quench, thereby augmenting the otherwise conduction-limited heat transfer process. A test plan for Melt Eruption Separate Effects Tests (MESET) has also been developed to provide information on the extent of crust growth and melt eruptions as a function of gas sparging rate under well-controlled experiment conditions. In terms of the second program objective, the project Management Board (MB) has approved startup activities required to carry out experiments to address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interaction. In particular, for both wet and dry cavity conditions, there is uncertainty insofar as evaluating the lateral vs. axial power split during a core-concrete interaction due to a lack of experiment data. As a result, there are differences in the 2-D cavity erosion predicted by codes such as MELCOR, WECHSL, and COSACO. The first step towards generating this data is to produce a test plan for review by the Project Review Group (PRG). The purpose of this document is to provide this plan. « less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two program objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of satisfying these objectives, the Management Board (MB) approved the conduct of two long-term 2-D Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) experiments designedmore » to provide information in several areas, including: (i) lateral vs. axial power split during dry core-concrete interaction, (ii) integral debris coolability data following late phase flooding, and (iii) data regarding the nature and extent of the cooling transient following breach of the crust formed at the melt-water interface. This data report provides thermal hydraulic test results from the CCI-2 experiment, which was conducted on August 24, 2004. Test specifications for CCI-2 are provided in Table 1-1. This experiment investigated the interaction of a fully oxidized 400 kg PWR core melt, initially containing 8 wt % Limestone/Common Sand (LCS) concrete, with a specially designed two-dimensional LCS concrete test section with an initial cross-sectional area of 50 cm x 50 cm. The report begins by providing a summary description of the CCI-2 test apparatus and operating procedures, followed by presentation of the thermal-hydraulic results. Detailed posttest debris examination results will be provided in a subsequent publication. Observations drawn within this report regarding the overall cavity erosion behavior may be subject to revision once the posttest examinations are completed, since these examinations will fully reveal the final cavity shape.« less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core/concrete interaction (MCCI) when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. However, due to the integral nature of these tests, several questions regarding the crust freezing behavior could not be adequately resolved. These questions include: (1) To what extent does water ingression into the crust increase the melt quench rate above the conduction-limited rate and how is this affected by melt composition and system pressure; and (2) What is the fracture strength of the corium crust when subjected to a thermal-mechanical load and how does it depend upon the melt composition? A series of separate-effects experiments are being conducted to address these issues. The first employs an apparatus designed to measure the quench rate of a pool of corium ({approx}{phi}30 cm; up to 20 cm deep). The main parameter to be varied in these quenchmore » tests is the melt composition since it is thought to have a critical influence on the crust cracking behavior which, in turn, alters quench rate. The issue of crust strength will be addressed with a second apparatus designed to mechanically load the crust produced by the quench tests. This apparatus will measure the fracture strength of the crust while under a thermal load created by a heating element beneath the crust. The two apparatuses used to measure the melt quench rate and crust strength are jointly referred to as SSWICS (Small-Scale Water Ingression and Crust Strength). This report describes results of the first water ingression test, designated SSWICS-1. The test investigated the quench behavior of a 15 cm deep, fully oxidized PWR corium melt containing 8 wt% limestone/common sand concrete decomposition products. The melt was quenched at nominally atmospheric pressure. The report includes a description of the test apparatus, the instrumentation used, plots of the recorded data, and data reduction to obtain an estimate of the corrected heat flux from the corium to the overlying water pool. A section of the report is devoted to calculations of the conduction-limited heat flux that accounts for heat losses to the crucible holding the corium. The remainder of the report describes post test examinations of the crust, which includes permeability and mechanical strength measurements, and chemical analysis.« less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction (MCCI) program is pursuing separate effect tests to examine the viability of the melt coolability mechanisms identified as part of the MACE program. These mechanisms include bulk cooling, water ingression, volcanic eruptions, and crust breach. At the second PRG meeting held at ANL on 22-23 October 2002, a preliminary design1 for a separate effects test to investigate the melt eruption cooling mechanism was presented for PRG review. At this meeting, NUPEC made several recommendations on the experiment approach aimed at optimizing the chances of achieving a floating crust boundary condition in this test. The principal recommendation was to incorporate a mortar sidewall liner into the test design, since data from the COTELS experiment program indicates that corium does not form a strong mechanical bond with this material. Other recommendations included: (i) reduction of the electrode elevation to well below the melt upper surface elevation (since the crust may bond to these solid surfaces), and (ii) favorably taper the mortar liner to facilitate crust detachment and relocation during the experiment. Finally, as a precursor to implementing these modifications, the PRG recommended the development of a design for a small-scale scoping test intended to verify the ability of the mortar liner to preclude formation of an anchored bridge crust under core-concrete interaction conditions. This revised Melt Eruption Test (MET) plan is intended to satisfy these PRG recommendations. Specifically, the revised plan focuses on providing data on the extent of crust growth and melt eruptions as a function of gas sparging rate under well-controlled experiment conditions, including a floating crust boundary condition. The overall objective of MET is to determine to what extent core debris is rendered coolable by eruptive-type processes that breach the crust that rests upon the melt. The specific objectives of this test are as follows: (1) Evaluate the augmentation in surface heat flux during periods of melt eruption; (2) Evaluate the melt entrainment coefficient from the heat flux and gas flow rate data for input into models that calculate ex-vessel debris coolability; (3) Characterize the morphology and coolability of debris resulting from eruptive processes that transport melt into overlying water; and (4) Discriminate between periods when eruptions take the form of particle ejections into overlying water, leading to a porous particle bed, and single-phase extrusions, which lead to volcano-type structures.

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program at Argonne National Laboratory addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core/concrete interaction (MCCI) when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. However, due to the integral nature of these tests, several questions regarding the crust freezing behavior could not be adequately resolved. These questions include: (1) To what extent does water ingression into the crust increase the melt quench rate above the conduction-limited rate and how is this affected by melt composition and system pressure and (2) What is the fracture strength of the corium crust when subjected to a thermal-mechanical load and how does it depend upon the melt composition? A series of separate-effects experiments are planned to address these issues. The first employs an apparatus designed to measure the quench rate of a pool of corium ({approx}{phi}30 cm; up to 20 cm deep). The main parameter to be varied in these quench testsmore » is the melt composition since it is thought to have a critical influence on the crust cracking behavior which, in turn, alters quench rate. A description of the test apparatus, instrumentation, data reduction, and test matrix are the subject of the first portion of this report. The issue of crust strength will be addressed with a second apparatus designed to mechanically load the crust produced by the quench tests. This apparatus will measure the fracture strength of the crust while under a thermal load created by a heating element beneath the crust. The introduction of a thermal gradient across the crust is thought to be important for these tests because of uncertainty in the magnitude of the thermal stresses and thus their relative importance in the crust fracture mechanism at plant scale. The second half of this report describes the apparatus for measuring crust strength. The two apparatuses used to measure the melt quench rate and crust strength are jointly referred to as SSWICS (Small-Scale Water Ingression and Crust Strength).« less

The Melt Attack and Coolability Experiments (MACE) program addressed the issue of the ability of water to cool and thermally stabilize a molten core-concrete interaction when the reactants are flooded from above. These tests provided data regarding the nature of corium interactions with concrete, the heat transfer rates from the melt to the overlying water pool, and the role of noncondensable gases in the mixing processes that contribute to melt quenching. As a follow-on program to MACE, The Melt Coolability and Concrete Interaction Experiments (MCCI) project is conducting reactor material experiments and associated analysis to achieve the following objectives: (1) resolve the ex-vessel debris coolability issue through a program that focuses on providing both confirmatory evidence and test data for the coolability mechanisms identified in MACE integral effects tests, and (2) address remaining uncertainties related to long-term two-dimensional molten core-concrete interactions under both wet and dry cavity conditions. Achievement of these two program objectives will demonstrate the efficacy of severe accident management guidelines for existing plants, and provide the technical basis for better containment designs for future plants. In terms of satisfying these objectives, the Management Board (MB) approved the conduct of two long-term 2-D Core-Concrete Interaction (CCI) experiments designedmore » to provide information in several areas, including: (i) lateral vs. axial power split during dry core-concrete interaction, (ii) integral debris coolability data following late phase flooding, and (iii) data regarding the nature and extent of the cooling transient following breach of the crust formed at the melt-water interface. The first of these two tests, CCI-1, was conducted on December 19, 2003. This test investigated the interaction of a fully oxidized 400 kg PWR core melt, initially containing 8 wt % calcined siliceous concrete, with a specially designed two-dimensional siliceous concrete test section with an initial cross-sectional area of 50 cm x 50 cm. The second of these two planned tests, CCI-2, will be conducted with a nearly identical test facility and experiment boundary conditions, but with a Limestone/Common Sand (LCS) concrete test section to investigate the effect of concrete type on the two-dimensional core-concrete interaction and debris cooling behavior. The objective of this report is to provide the overall test plan for CCI-2 to enable pretest calculations to be carried out. The report begins by providing a summary description of the CCI-2 test apparatus, followed by a description of the planned test operating procedure. Overall specifications for CCI-2 are provided in Table 1-1.« less

One of the great challenges of designing and licensing the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is to confirm that the intended VHTR analysis tools can be used confidently to make decisions and to assure all that the reactor systems are safe and meet the performance objectives of the Generation IV Program. The research and development (R&D) projects defined in the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Design Methods Development and Validation Program will ensure that the tools used to perform the required calculations and analyses can be trusted. The Methods R&D tasks are designed to ensure that the calculational envelope of the tools used to analyze the VHTR reactor systems encompasses, or is larger than, the operational and transient envelope of the VHTR itself. The Methods R&D focuses on the development of tools to assess the neutronic and thermal fluid behavior of the plant. The fuel behavior and fission product transport models are discussed in the Advanced Gas Reactor (AGR) program plan. Various stress analysis and mechanical design tools will also need to be developed and validated and will ultimately also be included in the Methods R&D Program Plan. The calculational envelope of the neutronics and thermal-fluids software tools intended tomore » be used on the NGNP is defined by the scenarios and phenomena that these tools can calculate with confidence. The software tools can only be used confidently when the results they produce have been shown to be in reasonable agreement with first-principle results, thought-problems, and data that describe the “highly ranked” phenomena inherent in all operational conditions and important accident scenarios for the VHTR.« less