COMEDIE BD1 experiment: Fission product behaviour during depressurization transients

An experimental program in the CEA COMEDIE loop has been carried out to obtain integral test data to validate the methods and transport models used to predict fission product release from the core and plate-out in the primary coolant circuit of the Modular High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (MHTGR) during normal operation and liftoff, and during rapid depressurization transients. The loop consists of an in-pile section with the fuel element, deposition section (heat exchanger), filters for collecting condensible Fission Productions (FP) during depressurization tests and an out-of-pile section devoted to chemical composition control of the gas and on-line analysis of gaseous FP. After steady state irradiation, the loop was subjected to a series of in-situ blowdowns at shear ratios (ratio of the wall shear stress during blowdown to that during steady state operation) ranging from 0.7 to 5.6. The results regarding the FP profiles on the plate-out section, before and after blowdowns are given. It appears that: the plate-out profiles depend on the FP chemistry; the depressurization phases have led to significant desorption of I 131, but on the contrary, they have almost no effect for the other FP such as Ag 110m, Cs 134, Cs 137 and Te 132. (author). 1 ref., 15 figs