EDN: GLVUJF
Authors & Affiliations
Dolzhenkov E.A.
Nuclear Safety Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Dolzhenkov E.A. – Researcher. Contacts: 52, Bolshaya Tulskaya st., Moscow, 115191, Russia. Tel.: +7 (916) 461-63-31; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Abstract
Boron carbide has a high value of the neutron absorption cross section and is widely used as the absorbing material in the control rods in Russian and Western reactors. Under severe accident conditions, the control rod cladding may fail due to eutectic interactions or cladding material melting and conditions for direct steam access to the remaining part of boron carbide and absorber melt may arise. The importance of boron carbide oxidation by steam is determined by its contribution to the hydrogen source term and fission product source term through the formation of gaseous carbon- and boron-containing compounds, which can affect the chemistry and transport in the primary circuit of some fission products, in particular iodine (gaseous forms) and cesium. The influence of boron carbide oxidation on the atmosphere composition in reactor and containment can increase significantly with using accident tolerant fuel and suppressing the steam zirconium reaction.
The purpose of this work is to adapt a boron carbide oxidation model for simulation of hydrogen and carbon monoxide source at SMR under severe accident conditions.
To demonstrate the correctness of adapted model and its model assumptions, it was validated against BOX experiments on the high-temperature boron carbide oxidation in a steam-argon mixture: the model well describes the dynamics of the hydrogen and carbon monoxide releases at temperatures up to 1200 °C, at higher temperatures – the model overestimates these values.
Keywords
model, oxidation, boron carbide, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, diffusion, control rod, severe accident, development, validation
Article Text (PDF, in Russian)
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UDC 621.039.586
Problems of Atomic Science and Technology. Series: Nuclear and Reactor Constants, 2025, no. 1, 1:15
