Description of Aerosol Release Associated with Sodium Burning

Incipient temperatures of sodium oxidation, sodium oxide aerosol release and sodium ignition were observed in relation with oxygen concentration in supplying gas by a thermobalance method. On this results, a burning rate and an aerosol release fraction were determined by burning about 0.5 g of sodium samples on a crucible in a burn tube under conditions ranging 400 to 600°C in sodium temperature, 0.1 to 1.0 Nl/min in the supplying gas flow rate and 2.5 to 20v/0 in the oxygen concentration.

Particle sizes of sodium aerosols released from the samples made a log-normal distribution, of which mass median diameter ranged from 0.6 to 2.0 μm. The burning rate increased with the increases of the sodium temperature, of the gas flow rate and of the oxygen concentration, and the aerosol release fraction also increased in proportion to the burning rate at fixed oxygen concentrations. It was found that the aerosol release rate defined as a product of the burning rate and the aerosol release fraction describes fairly well not only the present experimental data but also reported ones.     

钠冷快堆钠池火事故数值模拟

为了估计和预测钠火事故的后果，构建了以“有火焰薄层”为理论基础的燃烧模型和热传输模型，给出了程序计算结果与试验值的比较。比较结果证实，该计算结果可信、模型合理。程序可用来分析和预测钠池火事故。     

钠冷快堆中池式钠火的计算分析

文章论述了根据池式钠火的特点建立了理论模型 ,编制了SPOOL程序。该程序模拟钠燃烧过程中钠和氧气的化学反应 ,钠燃烧热在各种介质中不同方式的传递 ,钠气溶胶的产生、沉积 ,以及在各种通风条件下多种介质的质量和能量交换等瞬态过程 ,描述了钠燃烧过程中各种特征参数随时间的变化。其主要的计算参数包括房间内气体的压力和温度、房间建筑结构的温度、钠气溶胶质量浓度等等。用俄罗斯别洛雅尔斯克核电站实验和法国卡桑德拉 3号实验的数据 ,对SPOOL程序进行验证的结果表明 ,该程序的计算结果可信。该程序为国内钠冷快堆中池式钠火事故的安全分析提供了分析方法     

Sodium Fire Code SFIRE1C for Pool Fire Characteristics

Sodium pool fire code, SOFIRE II, written for the constant value of stoichiometric combustion ratio and heat of reaction is used to compute the buildup of pressure and temperature in a containment. In the SOFIRE II model, for the formation of a mixture of Na₂O and Na₂O₂ in the sodium pool, the input stoichiometric combustion ratio and heat of formation values need to be varied to corresponding values admissible for the mixture. In the present work, the SOFIRE II one-cell model is revised and the present version SFIRE1C (Sodium FIRE 1 Cell model) accounts for the formation of Na₂O in an early stage of the fire and shifts to the formation of Na₂O₂ at a later stage. Thus SFIRE1C computes in a more realistic manner the reaction products which are formed in the pool. The model for sodium oxide aerosol release is also modified in this version, by incorporating a more appropriate aerosol release rate equation. The calculated values using the SFIRE1C one-cell model are compared with sodium pool fire experimental results.     

Behavior of Sodium Oxide Aerosol in a Closed Chamber

The behavior of sodium oxide aerosol in a closed chamber was studied for the safety analysis of a Na-cooled fast reactor. The experimental apparatus and techniques are first described. The aerosol was released during a short time by blowing air onto heated Na in a 1 m³ chamber. The maximum mass concentration of the aerosol in the form of Na₂O ranged of 0.05 ～ 10g/m³. The particle size distribution, the aerosol mass concentration and the mass deposition rates were measured as a function of time.

It was found that the mass median diameter of the aerosol was related to the maximum mass concentration. To determine the character of the behavior of sodium oxide aerosol in the chamber, the density of the aerosol material and the thickness of the boundary layer through which the particles deposit on the chamber wall were observed. The initial half-time of the aerosol mass concentration was compared with the values numerically calculated under certain assumptions.     

Formation of Volatile Radioiodine Compounds in Sodium Pool Burning

In sodium pool burning occurring in the case of an LMFBR accident, some radio-iodine in the sodium coolant may be transported into the gas phase and act in common with sodium oxide aerosol. If some iodine is converted to volatile compounds, the radioactivity may remain for many hours in the gas phase of the reactor containment. The present work was carried out in an attempt to throw more light on these circumstances.

Reactor-grade sodium with sodium iodide tagged with ¹³¹I in an amount of about 1 ppm was burned by heating in a closed vessel containing air. Most of the iodine released into the gas phase took the form of aerosol, but some amount remained in vaporous state. It was determined by Maypacks and radio-gaschromatography that the volatile radio-iodine compounds were of organic form. The proportion of organic iodide referred to total airborne iodine in the present experiments falls within the experimental data on what will be formed in a loss of coolant accident involving a light water reactor. It is concluded that volatile iodine formation would present similar aspects under accidental conditions affecting both LWR and FBR, though the mechanisms governing the two cases would be different.     

Density Wave Instability of Sodium Boiling Two-phase Flow in a Vertical Annulus at Low Pressure

Experiments of density wave instability in a sodium boiling two-phase flow in an annulus were carried out with the parameters of heat flux from 80 to 976kW/m², inlet subcooling from 25.6 to 226.8°C, mass flow rate from 7.92 to 68.9 kg/h, and system pressure from 2,600 Pa to 0.06 MPa. It was found that the density wave instability occurred in the case of low exit quality, and the oscillation of flow rate was so large that the flow would be reversal. The lower inlet temperature, the higher system pressure and the larger mass flow rate could result in a more stable boiling two-phase flow. The oscillation period of the instability increased with the system pressure and the inlet subcooling, but it decreased with the mass flow rate. A correlation for the onset condition of the density wave instability was obtained from the experimental data.     

Experimental Studies on Heat Transfer by Natural Convection and Pool Boiling of Sodium in a Strong Magnetic Field

This report deals with an experiment on the heat transfer of liquid sodium, with particular reference to the effects brought by the application of a magnetic field on pool boiling. The test section, a heater pin of 6.5 mm diameter, was inserted vertically into the center of a sodium tank. The heating surface of the pin was parallel to the magnetic field as well as to the direction of gravity.

Under conditions of natural convection in a magnetic field, a sharp rise of the heating surface temperature was always seen to occur at some point when the heat flux was gradually increased, accompanied by the onset of sharp temperature oscillations.

The surface superheat required for the initiation of boiling decreased with increasing intensity of the applied magnetic field, reached a minimum, then increased again.

The surface temperature fluctuations in nucleate boiling was higher under magnetic field than when free of such influence. The critical heat flux for burn-out was not appreciably affected by magnetic field.     

Transmutation-incineration potential of transuraniums discharged from PWR-UO2 spent fuel in modified PROMETHEUS fusion reactor

This study presents the potential of the burning and/or transmutation (B/T) of transuraniums (TRUs), discharged from the pressured water reactor PWR-UO₂ spent fuel, in the modified PROMETHEUS-H fusion reactor. Two different design shapes (Models A and B) were considered. The transmutation zone (TZ), which contains the mixture of TRU nuclides (10%), was located in the modified blankets. The volume fraction of Pu in the mixture is raised from 0 to 40% stepped by 10% to determine its effect on the B/T. The fuel spheres were cladded with SiC (5%) and cooled with high-pressured helium gas (85%) for nuclear heat transfer. The calculations were performed for an operation period (OP) of up to 10 years by 75% plant factor (η) under a neutron wall load (P) of 4.7 MW/m². The results bring out that: (1) the Model B transmutes the TRUs more rapidly than the Model A; (2) the effective half-lives decrease about 20 and 40% with the increase of Pu fraction in the cases of Models A and B, respectively; (3) the M values are quite high with respect to the M value of the original PROMETHEUS fusion reactor; (4) the blankets can produce substantial electricity in situ.