Modelling of X-Ray Radioscopy for Phase Topology Estimation During Corium Sodium Interaction

Abstract

In case of a severe accident scenario in a Sodium cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) such as the ASTRID demonstrator, the fuel might melt and interact with the coolant i.e. liquid sodium. This molten Fuel Coolant Interaction (FCI) can generate an energetic vapor explosion that can jeopardize the reactor structures. The yield of the vapor explosion is strongly dependent on the local distribution of the fragmented melt with respect to the local vapor fractions. The medium is composed of three phases, i.e. corium, liquid sodium and vapor sodium. Thus, a study of the three phase distribution within the system is a key to understand the extent of the explosion. PLINIUS-2, the future large mass experimental platform of CEA Cadarache will be dedicated to conducting experiments to understand the behavior of prototypic corium in case of severe accidents. In order to study these interactions, a high energy X-ray imaging system is being developed. This system consists of a 15 MeV Linear accelerator producing high energy X-rays with significantly high flux, which are attenuated as it passes through the highly dense test section. The transmitted radiation is detected and re-emitted as visible light by the GADOX screen coupled to the CMOS camera. Using this system to study the interaction between corium and sodium is particularly challenging due to the small corium particulates of the size of the order of 1 mm. The qualification of the foreseen radioscopy system on the visualization of such an interaction requires the development of physical phantoms. This paper presents the preliminary simulations of expected images of corium fragments in sodium, vapor bubbles and vapor film around the fragments. The simulations are carried out using a CEA Cadarache in-house tool MODHERATO, which produces radiographic images in satisfactory agreement with the real time imaging. The simulation of particles is based on the knowledge of interaction phenomenology gained from past experiments and on the statistical analysis of the size of corium particles formed. The models which, according to MODHERATO results, qualify to be detected and resolved, help manufacturing physical phantoms to conduct the experiments.