The effects of debris bed's prototypical characteristics on corium coolability in a LWR severe accident

This paper is concerned with coolability assessment of a debris bed formed in fuel coolant interactions (FCIs) during a hypothetical severe accident in a light water reactor (LWR). The focus is placed the potential effect of the bed's prototypical characteristics on its coolability, in terms of (i) porosity range, (ii) multi-dimensionality, (iii) inhomogeneity, (iv) particle morphology, and (v) heat generation method (e.g. volumetric heating vs. local heaters). The analysis results indicate availability of substantial coolability margins compared to previous assessments based on models and experiments using an idealized bed configuration (e.g. 1 D homogenous debris layer). Notably, high porosity (up to 70%) of debris beds, obtained in experiments and expected to be the case of prototypical debris beds, could increase the dryout heat flux by 100% and more, depending on particle size, compared with the dryout heat flux predicted for debris beds with traditionally assumed porosity of approximately 40%. Bed inhomogeneity represented by micro-channels in a mini bed is predicted to enhance the dryout heat flux by up to similar to 50%, even if the micro-channels occupy only a small volume fraction (e.g., less than 4%) of the bed. The effect of coolant side ingress into a multidimensional bed is predicted to enhance the dryout heat flux by up to 40% for the beds analyzed. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.