2011

Sevon, Tuomo; Ferry, Lionel; Journeau, Christophe

In the reactor pit of the European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR), a special kind of sacrificial concrete type is used. The concrete is made of both siliceous (SiO2) and hematite (Fe2O3) aggregates. There was very scarce public experimental data about the behavior of this special concrete type in a severe accident. In co-operation with CEA, an experiment was conducted at the VULCANO facility in Cadarache, France. This VB U7 experiment involved interaction between oxidic corium, containing UO2 and ZrO2, and the hematite-containing concrete. It was found out that the special concrete type behaves in the same way as ordinary siliceous concrete but differently from limestone-common-sand (LCS) concrete.