Heat Removal Capability of Core-Catcher With Natural Circulation

Abstract

Toshiba has developed a core-catcher system. It is to be installed at the bottom of the lower drywell in order to stabilize a molten core flowing down from a reactor vessel. It consists of a round basin made up of inclined cooling channels arranged axisymmetrically, and the structure including risers, downcomers and a water chamber to get natural circulation of the flooding water. So it can cover entire pedestal floor and can work in passive manner. In order to confirm the heat removal capability of the core catcher with natural circulation, we have conducted full scaled tests in several conditions. Some important dimensionless numbers obtained from fundamental equations of the natural circulation are used for the tests. Using dimensionless number and to compare with several analysis, we can verify that the experiment is adequate to simulate the actual plant.