Status of emergency spray modelling in the integral code ASTEC

Containment spray systems are emergency systems that would be used in very low probability events which may lead to severe accidents in Light Water Reactors. In most cases, the primary function of the spray would be to remove heat and condense steam in order to reduce pressure and temperature in the containment building. Spray would also wash out fission products (aerosols and gaseous species) from the containment atmosphere. The efficiency of the spray system in the containment depressurization as well as in the removal of aerosols, during a severe accident, depends on the evolution of the spray droplet size distribution with the height in the containment, due to kinetic and thermal relaxation, gravitational agglomeration and mass transfer with the gas. A model has been developed taking into account all of these phenomena. This model has been implemented in the ASTEC code with a validation of the droplets relaxation against the CARAIDAS experiment (IPSN). Applications of this modelling to a PWR 900, during a severe accident, with special emphasis on the effect of spray on containment hydrogen distribution have been performed in multi-compartment configuration with the ASTEC V0.3 code. (author)