The PHENIX Final Tests

System thermal-hydraulic modelling of the phénix dissymmetric test benchmark

“…The final emergency cooling system is welded onto the outside wall of the third vessel; it aims at removing the decay heat in the event of a loss of normal cooling system, assuring to maintain the reactor pit concrete at ambient temperature. Inside and welded to the main vessel, a conical shell (primary vessel in Figure 1) achieves the separation between cold and hot pool and it ensures the support of the core, the strongback and the diagrid (Vasile et al, 2010).…”

“…It consists of an array of hexagonal assemblies characterized by an overall length of 4.3 m. The fuel is mixed uranium-plutonium oxide and two regions of different enrichment compose the central fissile zone of the core. The reactor core is completed with the annular fertile zone, steel reflectors, lateral shielding rods, six control rods and one safety rod (Vasile et al, 2010).…”

“…From 1993, the reactor was operated at a reduced power of 350 MWth and only four IHXs were operated, closing the inlet of two IHXs (called DOTE in Figure 2). The sodium collected inside the cold pool is driven to the diagrid by three vertical-axis primary pumps (PP); all three pumps continued to be operated after the power reduction (Vasile et al, 2010). The power produced in the core zones are reported in Table 1.…”

Monte Carlo Neutronics and Thermal-hydraulics coupling applied to Fast Reactors

“…The PHENIX experimental reactor end-of-life tests [123] were carried out before the permanent shut down of the facility. The tests cover core physics, fuel behavior and thermal-hydraulics and are being used for code validation in those areas, specially for the French codes for fast reactor analysis: ERANOS and DARWIN for core physics, TRIO U and CATHARE for thermal-hydraulics and GERMINAL for fuel behavior.…”