High temperature regime of corium concrete interactions

The high temperature regime of corium concrete interaction is examined from the point of view of its sensitivity to the completeness of reaction of the gaseous concrete decomposition products with the metallic components of the melt. A program based on the DECOMP modeling approach has been utilized for this purpose. For a corium/concrete heat transfer that is consistent with the erosion rates observed in the BETA experiments the primary effect of the extent of reaction completeness is on the duration of the high temperature regime. This implies a potentially important effect on the aerosols stripped out during this portion of the interaction