Ruthenium behavior in the reactor cooling system in case of a PWR severe accident: Study of oxidative conditions with stainless steel tube

Marie Noelle Ohnet; Olivia Leroy; Laurent Cantrel; Teemu Kärkelä

doi:10.1007/s10967-023-09230-7

Ruthenium behavior in the reactor cooling system in case of a PWR severe accident: Study of oxidative conditions with stainless steel tube

Marie Noelle Ohnet^*, Olivia Leroy, Laurent Cantrel, Teemu Kärkelä

^*Corresponding author for this work

BA4503 Severe accident analysis

Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the research field on severe accidents in nuclear power plant, a specific scenario correspond to accident with oxidative conditions for which damaged fuel can be highly oxidised with significant releases of ruthenium oxides. Ruthenium chemistry is complex, and the current knowledge has to be deepened to better assess ruthenium source term with potential radioactive releases to the environment as volatile ruthenium tetroxide. In this work, experimental studies are focused on ruthenium behaviour along a stainless-steel thermal gradient tube, with maximum temperature of 1200 °C, simulating the reactor cooling system in oxidizing conditions with mainly steam/air gas mixtures. Results showed that few % of ruthenium oxides (< 10% with SS tube) can reach low temperature, representative of containment temperature, even with low oxygen content in the carrier gas. The ruthenium revaporization process from the Ru deposits along the tube on mid-term was studied. Influence of carrier gas composition (steam %), flow rate and NO_x feed are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	235–251
Journal	Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry
Volume	333
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09230-7
Publication status	Published - 2024
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

The authors acknowledge the OECD/NEA/CSNI hosting the STEM2 project and the STEM project partners: Electricité De France, Canadian National Laboratories (Canada), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (Finland), Nuclear Research Institute (Czech Republic), Gesellschaft für Anlagen - und Reaktorsicherheit (Germany), Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Korea Institute for Nuclear Safety, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USA), Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, National Nuclear Laboratory (England), Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Regulation Authority (Japan). The authors also thank the CNRS Villeurbanne (CREALINS) for the measurements of Ru deposit with the alkaline fusion method (L. Ayouni), K. Boucault, C. Gomez and S. Souvi from IRSN for their technical contribution and fruitful discussion.

Keywords

NO
Reactor cooling system
Ruthenium transport
Severe accident
Source term

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10.1007/s10967-023-09230-7

Cite this

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title = "Ruthenium behavior in the reactor cooling system in case of a PWR severe accident: Study of oxidative conditions with stainless steel tube",

abstract = "In the research field on severe accidents in nuclear power plant, a specific scenario correspond to accident with oxidative conditions for which damaged fuel can be highly oxidised with significant releases of ruthenium oxides. Ruthenium chemistry is complex, and the current knowledge has to be deepened to better assess ruthenium source term with potential radioactive releases to the environment as volatile ruthenium tetroxide. In this work, experimental studies are focused on ruthenium behaviour along a stainless-steel thermal gradient tube, with maximum temperature of 1200 °C, simulating the reactor cooling system in oxidizing conditions with mainly steam/air gas mixtures. Results showed that few \% of ruthenium oxides (< 10\% with SS tube) can reach low temperature, representative of containment temperature, even with low oxygen content in the carrier gas. The ruthenium revaporization process from the Ru deposits along the tube on mid-term was studied. Influence of carrier gas composition (steam \%), flow rate and NO x feed are discussed.",

keywords = "NO, Reactor cooling system, Ruthenium transport, Severe accident, Source term",

author = "Ohnet, \{Marie Noelle\} and Olivia Leroy and Laurent Cantrel and Teemu K{\"a}rkel{\"a}",

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year = "2024",

doi = "10.1007/s10967-023-09230-7",

language = "English",

volume = "333",

pages = "235–251",

journal = "Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry",

issn = "0236-5731",

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T1 - Ruthenium behavior in the reactor cooling system in case of a PWR severe accident

T2 - Study of oxidative conditions with stainless steel tube

AU - Ohnet, Marie Noelle

AU - Leroy, Olivia

AU - Cantrel, Laurent

AU - Kärkelä, Teemu

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - In the research field on severe accidents in nuclear power plant, a specific scenario correspond to accident with oxidative conditions for which damaged fuel can be highly oxidised with significant releases of ruthenium oxides. Ruthenium chemistry is complex, and the current knowledge has to be deepened to better assess ruthenium source term with potential radioactive releases to the environment as volatile ruthenium tetroxide. In this work, experimental studies are focused on ruthenium behaviour along a stainless-steel thermal gradient tube, with maximum temperature of 1200 °C, simulating the reactor cooling system in oxidizing conditions with mainly steam/air gas mixtures. Results showed that few % of ruthenium oxides (< 10% with SS tube) can reach low temperature, representative of containment temperature, even with low oxygen content in the carrier gas. The ruthenium revaporization process from the Ru deposits along the tube on mid-term was studied. Influence of carrier gas composition (steam %), flow rate and NO x feed are discussed.

AB - In the research field on severe accidents in nuclear power plant, a specific scenario correspond to accident with oxidative conditions for which damaged fuel can be highly oxidised with significant releases of ruthenium oxides. Ruthenium chemistry is complex, and the current knowledge has to be deepened to better assess ruthenium source term with potential radioactive releases to the environment as volatile ruthenium tetroxide. In this work, experimental studies are focused on ruthenium behaviour along a stainless-steel thermal gradient tube, with maximum temperature of 1200 °C, simulating the reactor cooling system in oxidizing conditions with mainly steam/air gas mixtures. Results showed that few % of ruthenium oxides (< 10% with SS tube) can reach low temperature, representative of containment temperature, even with low oxygen content in the carrier gas. The ruthenium revaporization process from the Ru deposits along the tube on mid-term was studied. Influence of carrier gas composition (steam %), flow rate and NO x feed are discussed.

KW - NO

KW - Reactor cooling system

KW - Ruthenium transport

KW - Severe accident

KW - Source term

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85176749321

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M3 - Article

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SN - 0236-5731

VL - 333

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JO - Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

JF - Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry

ER -

Ruthenium behavior in the reactor cooling system in case of a PWR severe accident: Study of oxidative conditions with stainless steel tube

Abstract

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Keywords

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