Modelling the behaviour of corrosion products in the primary heat transfer circuits of pressurized water reactors. A review of principles

This review covers all reactors in which the primary heat transfer medium is predominantly single-phase water and in which steam is generated in a secondary circuit, i.e. including CANDU pressurized heavy water reactors (CANDU PHWR), Soviet WWERs, etc. A full appreciation of the effects of boiling and two-phase flow is necessary to extend this work to direct cycle reactors. Reviews of the formation, transport and deposition of radioactive corrosion products in PWRs have been presented by several authors (Berry and Diegle, 1979; Darras, 1980; Vanbrabant and de Regge, 1982; Gautsch, Lanza and Weisgerber, 1979). More general reviews of relevance to corrosion product fouling have also been published: fouling in heat exchangers (Epstein, 1978); corrosion products in power generating systems (Lister, 1979a); particulate fouling (Gudmundsson, 1979); and precipitation fouling (Hasson, 1979). This review focusses attention on the principles which must form the basis for any mechanistic model for predicting the contamination of PWR primary circuit surfaces by radioactive corrosion products. Refs, 10 figs, 2 tabs