Dr. Mitja Uršič (IJS): Interaction of molten nuclear fuel with coolant

Severe accidents in nuclear power plants can result in the reactor core degradation. Incapability of severe accident management strategies to ensure adequate decay heat removal may result in significant core melting. An energetic event may occur during a core melting accident, when the rapid and intense heat transfer follows the mixing between the molten corium (mixture of nuclear fuel and structural materials) and coolant. Potentially severe dynamic loadings could jeopardize the reactor vessel and the containment integrity. Thus, in the frame of safety studies for nuclear power plants it is important to estimate the risk for the radioactive material release into environment in case of a severe accident.
The precise nature of an energetic interaction between molten corium and coolant phenomenon is still an open issue. First, key phases and processes of phenomenon will be presented. Second, modelling improvements of corium melt fragmentation and corium to coolant heat transfer will be discussed.
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