Experimental investigation on the chemical precipitation generation under the loss of coolant accident of nuclear power plants

The PWR containment buildings are designed to facilitate core cooling in the event of a Loss of Coolant Accident (LOCA). The cooling process requires water discharged from the break and containment spray to be collected in a sump for recirculation. The containment sump contains screens to protect the components of the Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) and Containment Spray System (CSS) from debris. Since the containment materials may dissolve or corrode when exposed to the reactor coolant and spray solutions, various chemical precipitations can be generated in a post-LOCA environment. These chemical precipitations may become another source of debris loading to be considered in sump screen performance and downstream effects. In this study, new experimental methodology to predict the type and quantity of chemical precipitations has been developed. To generate the plant-specific chemical precipitation in a post-LOCA environment, the plant specific chemical condition of the recirculation sump during post-LOCA is simulated with the experimental reactor for the chemical effect. The plant-specific containment materials are used in the present experiment such as glass fibers, concrete blocks, aluminum specimens, and chemical reagent - boric acid, spray additives or buffering chemicals (sodium hydroxide, Tri-Sodium Phosphate (TSP), or others). The inside temperature of the reactor is controlled to simulate the plant-specific temperature profile of the recirculation sump. The total amount of aluminum released from aluminum specimens is evaluated by ICP-AES analysis to determine the amount of AlOOH and NaAlSi3O8 which induce very adverse effect on the head loss across the sump screens. The amount of these precipitations generated in the present experimental study is compared with the results of WCAP-16530-NP-A. (authors)