Development of geopolymer based sacrificial materials for GEN IV severe accident mitigation

摘要

The development of Generation IV nuclear power plants includes the considerations about a hypothetical severe accident. Therefore, passive safety systems for severe accident mitigation can be engineered and designed as an integral part of the plant based on its needs and specifications. Presented work describes the development of geopolymer sacrificial materials for core catcher of a gas cooled fast reactor. Knowing the corium properties at the time of the reactor vessel failure we have designed a inovative sacrificial material using specific powder fillers powder (MgO, Fe2O3, Ca-3(PO4)(2), Al2O3, Gd2O3), which were immobilized by a silico-aluminate geopolymer matrix. The composite geopolymers were characterised by means of the solid-state analysis. Moreover, the gamma-radiation stability was examined together with the mechanical properties. We found that the geopolymer matrix can easily embed the powder fillers with high homogeneity. The mechanical properties are stable under gamma irradiation. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.