A historical review of in-vessel melt retention （IVR） is given, which is a severe accident mitigation mea- sure extensively applied in Generation III pressurized water reactors （PWRs）. The idea of IVR actually ori...A historical review of in-vessel melt retention （IVR） is given, which is a severe accident mitigation mea- sure extensively applied in Generation III pressurized water reactors （PWRs）. The idea of IVR actually originated from the back-fitting of the Generation 11 reactor Loviisa WER-440 in order to cope with the core-melt risk. It was then employed in the new deigns such as Westinghouse APIO00, the Korean APR1400 as well as Chinese advanced PWR designs HPRIO00 and CAP1400. The most influential phe- nomena on the IVR strategy are in-vessel core melt evolution, the heat fluxes imposed on the vessel by the molten core, and the external cooling of the reactor pressure vessel （RPV）. For in-vessel melt evolution, past focus has only been placed on the melt pool convection in the lower plenum of the RPV; however, through our review and analysis, we believe that other in-vessel phenomena, including core degradation and relocation, debris formation, and coolability and melt pool formation, may all contrib- ute to the final state of the melt pool and its thermal loads on the lower head. By looking into previous research on relevant topics, we aim to identify the missing pieces in the picture. Based on the state of the art, we conclude by proposing future research needs.展开更多
文摘A historical review of in-vessel melt retention （IVR） is given, which is a severe accident mitigation mea- sure extensively applied in Generation III pressurized water reactors （PWRs）. The idea of IVR actually originated from the back-fitting of the Generation 11 reactor Loviisa WER-440 in order to cope with the core-melt risk. It was then employed in the new deigns such as Westinghouse APIO00, the Korean APR1400 as well as Chinese advanced PWR designs HPRIO00 and CAP1400. The most influential phe- nomena on the IVR strategy are in-vessel core melt evolution, the heat fluxes imposed on the vessel by the molten core, and the external cooling of the reactor pressure vessel （RPV）. For in-vessel melt evolution, past focus has only been placed on the melt pool convection in the lower plenum of the RPV; however, through our review and analysis, we believe that other in-vessel phenomena, including core degradation and relocation, debris formation, and coolability and melt pool formation, may all contrib- ute to the final state of the melt pool and its thermal loads on the lower head. By looking into previous research on relevant topics, we aim to identify the missing pieces in the picture. Based on the state of the art, we conclude by proposing future research needs.
