The result of a wall failure in-pile experiment under the EAGLE project

The WF (wall failure) test of the EAGLE program, in which ∼2 kg of uranium dioxide fuel-pins were melted by nuclear heating, was successfully conducted in the IGR (Impulse Graphite Reactor) of NNC/Kazakhstan. In this test, a 3 mm-thick stainless steel (SS) wall structure was placed between fuel pins and a 10 mm-thick sodium-filled channel (sodium gap). During the transient, fuel pins were heated, which led to the formation of a fuel-steel mixture pool. Under the transient nuclear heating condition, the SS wall was strongly heated by the molten pool, leading to wall failure. The time needed for fuel penetration into the sodium-filled gap was very short (less than 1 s after the pool formation). The result suggests that molten core materials formed in hypothetical LMFBR core disruptive accidents have a certain potential to destroy SS-wall boundaries early in the accident phase, thereby providing fuel escape paths from the core region. The early establishment of such fuel escape paths is regarded as a favorable characteristic in eliminating the possibility of severe re-criticality events. A preliminary interpretation on the WF test results is presented in this paper.