In-Vessel Retention of Molten Corium: Lessons Learned and Outstanding Issues

Corium Behavior in the Lower Plenum of the Reactor Vessel Under Ivr-Ervc Condition: Technical Issues

“…Many studies have been performed for the RayleighBenard problem. This kind of natural convection study is summarized in Reference [1]. However, analytical and experimental results are limited in the heat transfer style of Fig 7 including the side wall heat transfer.…”

“…The IVR (In-Vessel corium Retention) through the ERVC (External Reactor Vessel Cooling) is known to be an effective means for maintaining reactor vessel integrity during a severe accident in a nuclear power plant [1,2]. This measure is adopted in low and medium power reactors, such as the AP600, the AP1000 [3,4], the Loviisa nuclear power plant [5], and the KERENA [6] as a design feature for severe accident mitigation, and in the high-power reactors of the APR (Advanced Power Reactor) 1400 and the APR + (Advanced Power Reactor Plus) as an accident management strategy [7][8][9].…”

Experimental Study of Stainless Steel 304l Interaction With Zircaloy at High Temperatures

“…Thus, it is important in such a scenario to retain the corium inside the reactor vessel by implementing severe accident management measures. This phenomenon is called in-vessel melt retention (IVR) [2] and is postulated for some light-water reactor (LWR) and for all Canada deuterium uranium (CANDU) reactor types. One of the important factors in the analysis of IVR is the ablation of the inner surface of the reactor vessel wall when in contact with corium or its individual constituents at high temperature [3].…”

Enhancement of the critical heat flux in saturated pool boiling of water by nanoparticle-coating and a honeycomb porous plate

“…One strategy for severe accidents, such as loss of coolant accidents (LOCA), is in-vessel retention (IVR) of corium debris [1]. The IVR consists of external cooling of the reactor vessel in order to remove decay heat from the molten core through the lower head of the vessel.…”