Centrifugal Filtration System for Severe Accident Source Term Treatment

The objective of this paper is to present the conceptual design of a filtration system that can be used to process airborne severe accident source term. Reactor containment may lose its structural integrity due to over-pressurization during a severe accident. This can lead to uncontrolled radioactive releases to the environment. For preventing the dispersion of these uncontrolled radioactive releases to the environment, several ways to capture or mitigate these radioactive source term releases are under investigation at KAIST. Such technologies are based on concepts like a vortex-like air curtain, a chemical spray, and a suction arm. Treatment of the radioactive material captured by these systems would be required, before releasing to environment. For current filtration systems in the nuclear industry, IAEA lists sand, multi-venturi scrubber, high efficiency particulate arresting (HEPA), charcoal and combinations of the above in NS-G-1-10, 4.143. Most if not all of the requirements of the scenario for applying this technology near the containment of an NPP site and the environmental constraints were analyzed for use in the design of the centrifuge filtration system