Effects on Consequences of the High Steam Content in LWR Accident Releases: Physics and Preliminary Results

摘要

Our research has addressed the possibility that condensation of steam during the release of containment gases and aerosol particles to the atmosphere after a core-melt accident could deposit a significant fraction of the radioactive material near the plant. This paper describes the modeling of accident releases including this rainout and discusses the impact of our findings on risk predictions. Our models include details of the hydrodynamics of the flow from containment, thermodynamics of the release mixture, explicit consideration of condensation on the radioactive aerosols, turbulent agglomeration of aerosols and water droplets, buoyant plume physics, and the dispersion and deposition of drops. We discuss the initial and boundary conditions which lead to significant rainout. (ERA citation 09:033334)