The test section was located downstream of the mixing vessel; it consisted of four steel pipes connected in series and/or parallel. The first pipe between the mixing vessel exit and the test pipe inlet (total length ≈4 m) was thermally insulated in order to reduce thermophoretic deposition and heat losses as well as to avoid steam condensation. The 63-mm inner diameter test pipe was 5 m long and was surrounded by an oven to keep the pipe wall temperature at the required levels during the deposition and resuspension phases. In the deposition phase, the carrier gas and aerosols pass through the mixing vessel a first straight pipe into the test section and then straight to the wash and filtering system. In the resuspension phase, the clean gas was injected through the resuspension line directly into the test section and the resuspended aerosols were collected in the main filter before the gas goes through the wash and filtering system.
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 test matrix included the first VVER-440 type integral severe accident experiment. The results of a quench test with pre-oxidised bundle indicated the protective role of the external oxide scale. Unique experiments were performed with PWR bundles under air ingress conditions. The last test of the current series helped to resolve the methane production issue during the oxidaton of a boron-carbide control rod in a severe accident. Some experiments were related to the preparation of PHEBUS tests, and some others were performed parallel with similar QUENCH tests. The experimental results contributed to the general understanding of severe accident progression in the loss of rod-like geometry phase and the test data have been used and are available for model development and code validation purposes.
The CODEX out-of-pile integral test facility was built and put into operation in 1995 at the KFKI Atomic Energy Research Institute, Hungary in order to investigate some specific aspects of core degradation and to extend the experimental database for code valiadation and development. Some of the experiments were VVER specific, while others were of general interest for any light water reactor. The comparison of CODEX exepriments with CORA and QUENCH tests can help to sift out the effects related to the specific features or scaling of the facilities. Some new techniques (e.g. aerosol measurements) applied in the test facility provide additional information on the high temperature behaviour of core materials. For the investigation of the aerosol release a cascade impactor system is connected to the upper plenum of the cooler and two pipelines allowes the continuous measurement of aerosols by means of laser particle counters. The gas concentration in the off-gas system is measured using a quadropole mass spectrometer. The instrumentation of the facility consists of the measurements of the operational parameters as heating power, flowrates, temperatures, levels and pressures. Thermocouples are placed in several positions in the heat insulation material, on the heat shield, on the external surface of the shroud, on the fuel rods and inside of the central (unheated) rod. Two pyrometers and a video camera are located at three windows in the upper part of the bundle. After the experiments the post-test examination of the bundle and aerosol samples is carried out with several techniques, including metallography, SEM, microprobe analysis, X-ray radiography and mass spectrometry.
Facility is not in operation.