Experimental simulation of low rate primary coolant leaks. For the case of vessel head penetrations affected by through wall cracking

An experimental simulation of primary coolant leaks was carried out to determine how the composition of the leaking liquid would change. The experiment used the EVA experimental setup, specially designed for quantitatively investigating concentration phenomena driven by evaporation. The test showed that the final composition, obtained from a solution representative of the primary coolant at the beginning of the cycle, is highly concentrated and slightly acid. The experimental results are compared with those obtained using the MULTEQ software. (authors)