Experimental Study on the Molten Corium Interaction with Structure by Induction Heating Technique

The corium compositions strongly depend on the accident scenarios, and thus the melt generation technique for various melt compositions is essential to investigate the corium-structural material interaction characteristics according to the accident scenarios. Since 1997, KAERI has several years of experiences with melt generation to investigate the material ablation characteristics and steam explosion phenomena. Based on the experiences of the TROI (Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water) facility for the steam explosion experiments, the VESTA (Verification of Ex-vessel corium STAbilization) test facility was designed and constructed in 2010 for the development of a core catcher under the APR+ project. At the same time, the VESTA-S (VESTA-Small) was established for small scale material ablation experiments. Some experimental results were reported for the interactions of metallic or oxidic melt with the structural materials such as special concrete or penetration weld. The objective of this paper is to provide the specific features of the VESTA and VESTA-S facilities including information on the melt generation technique adopted for the facilities. Some issues are also addressed in this paper for further facility improvement. In the present paper, the principles of induction heating adopted for the VESTA and VESTA-S facilities were summarized briefly and the system features for the melt-structural material interaction experiments were explained. As a major characteristic of the VESTA facility, up to 400 kg of corium melt is expected to be generated using the currently installed system. The jet impingement effect on the material ablation characteristics was demonstrated successfully in the VESTA facility. In the VESTA-S facility, the small scale material ablation experiments by long term melt interaction were performed properly by adopting the melt delivery method. However, for a more realistic severe accident simulation, we need to improve the melt temperature control system by analyzing the heat transfer mechanisms during the melt generation process