Aerosol Removal by Emergency Spray in PWR Containment: Synthesis of the TOSQAN Aerosol Tests

Abstract

During the course of a severe accident in a nuclear Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), containment reactor is pressurized by steam and hydrogen released from a primary circuit breach and distributed into the containment according to convective flows and steam wall condensation. In addition, core degradation leads to fission product release into the containment. Water spraying is used in the containment as mitigation means in order to reduce pressure, to remove fission products and to enhance the gas mixing in case of presence of hydrogen. This paper presents the synthesis of the results of the TOSQAN aerosol program undertaken by the Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) devoted to study the aerosol removal by a spray, for typical accidental thermal hydraulic conditions in PWR containment.