The composition of aerosols generated during a severe reactor accident: Experimental results from the Power Burst Facility Severe Fuel Damage Test 1-4

Experimental results on fission product and aerosol release during the Power Burst Facility Severe Fuel Damages (SFD) Test 1-4 are examined to determine the composition of aerosols that would be generated during a severe reactor accident. The SFD 1-4 measured aerosol contained significant quantities of volatile fission products (VFPs) (cesium, iodine, tellurium), control materials (silver and cadmium), and structural materials (tin), indicating that fission product release, vaporization of control material, and release of tin from oxidized Zircaloy were all important aerosol sources. On average the aerosol composition is between one-quarter and one-half VFPs (especially cesium), with the remainder being control material (especially cadmium), and structural material (especially tin). Source term computer codes like CORSOR-M tend to overpredict the release of structural and control rod material relative to fission products by a factor of between 2 and 15 because the models do not account for relocation of molten control, fuel, and structural material during the degradation process, which tends to reduce the aerosol source. The results indicate that the aerosol generation in a severe reactor accident is intimately linked to the core degradation process. They recommend that these results be used to improve the models in source term computer codes