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

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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 NOx feed are discussed.

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Abbreviations

SA:

Severe accident

NPP:

Nuclear power plant

STEM:

Source Term Evaluation and Mitigation

START:

Study of the TrAnsport of RuThenium in the primary circuit

RCS:

Reactor cooling system

PWR:

Pressurized water reactor

TGT:

Thermal gradient tube

SS:

Stainless steel

DT:

Dipping tube

DMA:

Differential mobility analyzer

CPC:

Condensation particle counter

ASTEC:

Accident Source Term Evaluation Code

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Acknowledgements

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), PSN-RES/SEREX/L2EC, Cadarache, BP 3, 13115, Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance Cedex, France

    Marie-Noelle Ohnet, Olivia Leroy & Laurent Cantrel

  2. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT), 02044, Espoo, Finland

    Teemu Kärkelä

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  1. Marie-Noelle Ohnet
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Correspondence to Marie-Noelle Ohnet.

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Ohnet, MN., Leroy, O., Cantrel, L. et al. Ruthenium behavior in the reactor cooling system in case of a PWR severe accident: study of oxidative conditions with stainless steel tube. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 333, 235–251 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09230-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-023-09230-7

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