The objective of the EMAIC (Emission AIC) facility is to characterise the physico-chemical nature of the aerosol source term resulting from the vaporisation of control rod material made of the metals Silver (Ag), indium (In), Cadmium (Cd) after their cladding rupture during a PWR severe accident.

Facility consists of the hemispherical test vessel, a volumetric heating system in the test vessel to simulate the decay heat, a heating furnace to generate and pour the simulated corium melt, and a multitude of instrumentation to characterize the status of the melt.

Experimental facility Figure &
A single sampler unit

Complex measurements were performed at the integral high temperature test facility CODEX (COre Degradation Experiment) between 1995-2002 with electrically heated UO2 fuel rod bundles.

The experimental programme named KAJET is being performed to investigate features of a pressurized melt jet and the interaction with substratum material. Compact melt jets, rather than a spray-type melt release, are simulated using iron and aluminium oxide instead of corium. The melt is generated by a thermite reaction.

VITI (‘‘VIscosity Temperature Installation’’) facility has been developed to measure viscosity, density and surface tension on corium up to 2600 C by aerodynamic levitation. But it is also used as small crucibles heating for material interactions tests. Samples of less than 100 g can be studied in VITI.

Condensation studies at LUT started with an open pool test facility (POOLEX) modeling the suppression pool of the BWR containment. During the years 2002-2006, the facility had several modifications and enhancements as well as improvements of instrumentation before it was replaced with a more versatile PPOOLEX facility in the end of 2006

The VERCORS programme, which involves tests with short fuel-rod samples, has proved to be a rich source of information regarding FP release and tranport.

FARO (Furnace And Release Oven) experimental facility began the experiments of the LWR-MFCI phenomena in 1990 in collaboration with several reactor safety research organizations from European Union member countries and with the participation of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A research program on reflood of an overheated core and corresponding topics is running at KIT, including large scale bundle tests at IAM-WPT , various kinds of separate-effects tests at IAM-AWP , model development and code application.

In case of a steam explosion, e.g. as a consequence of a severe reactor accident, part of the thermal energy of the melt is transferred into mechanical energy. At Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, the ECO experiments are being directed to measure the conversion factor under well-defined conditions. The programme was launched in 2000.

The KROTOS test facility is a relatively small scale experimental installation dedicated to the study of: (a) molten fuel-coolant pre-mixing either with prototypic reactor melts or simulants such as alumina up to 5 kg; (b) progression and energetics of spontaneous and triggered fuel-coolant interactions (vapor explosions).