Experiments on the interactions of molten ZrO2 with water using TROI facility Review Article

Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) launched an intermediate scale steam explosion experiment named ‘Test for Real cOrium Interaction with water (TROI)’ using reactor material. The objective of the program is to investigate whether the corium would lead to energetic steam explosion when interacted with cold water at a low pressure. The melt/water interaction is made in a multi-dimensional test section located in a pressure vessel. The inductive skull melting, which is basically a direct inductive heating of an electrically conducting melt, is implemented for the melting and delivery of corium. In the first series of tests using several kg of ZrO2 where the melt/water interaction is made in a heated water pool at 30–95 °C, either a quenching or a spontaneous steam explosion was observed. The spontaneous explosion observed in the present ZrO2 melt/water experiments clearly indicates that the physical properties of the UO2/ZrO2 mixture have a strong effect on the energetics of steam explosion.