Mécanismes d'oxydation de l'acier liquide lors de l'Interaction Corium-Béton à haute température en cas d'accident grave de réacteur nucléaire

摘要

In case of severe nuclear accident, the loss of coolant leads to the formation of a high temperature liquid mixture (T>2500K) of nuclear fuel and structural materials inside the vessel. After the vessel failure, the corium could interact with the concrete of the reactor pit. The metallic phase inside the corium during corium-concrete interaction, changes the ablation processes and release H2 and CO. The aim of the PhD thesis was to study the kinetics and mechanisms of the liquid steel oxidation during corium-concrete interaction. In this way, the study was divided in three parts: with calculations at the thermodynamic equilibrium, with analytical experiments and with prototypical experiments. The results of oxidation analyses during prototypical experiments show that gases inside the concrete are not the only one source of oxidation and that another source outside the concrete have to participate to the oxidation mechanism. The analytical experiments and the thermodynamic approach show that the corium can oxidize the metallic phase whereas the concrete oxides cannot. The oxidation mechanism of liquid steel is based on high chromium and iron oxidation leading to their depletion. Oxidation of nickel does not occur, it would be mainly evaporated according to the thermodynamic calculations. Thanks to the kinetic study, the rates of the liquid steel oxidation by O2 et CO2 have been found and a phenomenological model have been proposed to estimate the steel oxidation during the prototypical experiments.