Experimental investigation on effective aerosol scavenging using different spray configurations with pre-injection of water mist for Fukushima Daiichi decommissioning

During the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,it is important to consider the retrieval of resolidified debris both in air and underwater configurations.For the subsequent retrieval of debris from the reactor building,the resolidified debris must be cut into smaller pieces using various cutting methods.During the cutting process,aerosol particles are expected to be generated at the submicron scale.It has been noted that such aerosols sizing within the Greenfield gap(0.1-1μm)are difficult to remove effectively using traditional spraying methods.Therefore,to improve the aerosol removal efficiency of the spray system,a new aerosol agglomeration method was recently proposed,which involves injecting water mist to enlarge the sizes of the aerosol particles before removing them using water sprays.In this study,a series of experiments were performed to clarify the proper spray configurations for effective aerosol scavenging and to improve the performance of the water mist.The experimental results showed that the spray flow rate and droplet characteristics are important factors for the aerosol-scavenging efficiency and performance of the water mist.The results obtained from this study will be helpful for the optimization of the spray system design for effective aerosol scavenging during the decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Analysis of molten metal spreading and solidification behaviors utilizing moving particle full-implicit method

To retrieve the fuel debris in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants(1F),it is essential to infer the fuel debris distribution.In particular,the molten metal spreading behavior is one of the vital phenomena in nuclear severe accidents because it determines the initial condition for further accident scenarios such as molten core concrete interaction(MCCI).In this study,the fundamental molten metal spreading experiments were performed with different outlet diameters and sample amounts to investigate the effect of the outlet for spreading-solidification behavior.In the numerical analysis,the moving particle full-implicit method(MPFI),which is one of the particle methods,was applied to simulate the spreading experiments.In the MPFI framework,the melting-solidification model including heat transfer,radiation heat loss,phase change,and solid fraction-dependent viscosity was developed and implemented.In addition,the difference in the spreading and solidification behavior due to the outlet diameters was reproduced in the calculation.The simulation results reveal the detailed solidification procedure during the molten metal spreading.It is found that the viscosity change and the solid fraction change during the spreading are key factors for the free surface condition and solidified materials.Overall,it is suggested that the MPFI method has the potential to simulate the actual nuclear melt-down phenomena in the future.