Analysis of methods for simulating the decay heat in corium when modeling a severe accidents at nuclear power plant

Abstract

It is known that during development of a severe accident at a nuclear power plant, the melting of core materials and the formation of corium occurs. A feature of corium is the presence of a decay heat, which contributes a lot to the nature of its interaction with the structural materials of the reactor facility. In this regard, quite serious requirements are imposed on methods for simulating decay heat in the corium prototype, which relate to both the uniformity of the volume distribution and its intensity. This paper presents a comparative analysis of existing methods for decay heat simulation in corium, which are used at various experimental facilities investigating the operation of passive protection systems in severe accidents with reactor meltdown at nuclear power plants. By comparing the advantages and disadvantages, a more practical method of decay heat simulation is determined and ways are proposed to further improve the chosen method to fully simulate the thermal field of a real corium.