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Severe Accidents in Nuclear Reactors: Corium Retention Technologies and Insights presents an authoritative and practical analysis of the latest severe accident management strategies based on previous events and experiments. Written for utilities and industries operating and researching nuclear cooled reactor power plants, this book presents the exponential growth in research since major nuclear accidents and acts as a guide to retaining molten corium, both inside and outside the reactor vessel. Sections cover the physics behind several complex phenomena occurring during corium coolability, providing the reader with an in-depth understanding by presenting the insights obtained from simulated severe accidents. In addition, the book validates several severe accident codes and provides evidence on the termination of severe accident progressions to help the reader evaluate the safety of existing reactors and design the next generation of nuclear reactors. Provides a step-by-step guide to various severe accident management experiments Includes evidence on the termination of severe accident progressions Validates several severe accident codes

The quenching characteristics of a volumetrically-heated particulate bed composed of radially stratified sand layers were investigated experimentally in the POMECO facility. The sand bed simulates the corium particulate debris bed which is formed when the molten corium released from the vessel fragments in water and deposits on the cavity floor during a postulated severe accident in a light water reactor (LWR). The electrically-heated bed was quenched by water from a water column established over top of it, and later also with water coming from its bottom, which was circulating from the water overlayer through downcomers. A series of experiments were conducted to reveal the effects of the size of downcomers, and their locations in the bed, on the quenching characteristics of the radially stratified debris beds. The downcomers were found to significantly increase the bed quenching rate. To simulate the non-condensable gases generated during the MCCI, air and argon were injected from the bottom of the bed at different flow rates. The effects of gas flow rate and its properties on the quenching behaviour were observed. The results indicate that the non-condensable gas flows reduce the quenching rate significantly. The gas properties also affect the quenching characteristics., QC 20110816