Emergency cooling experiments with aqueous boric acid solution in the REWET-II facility

Although boron is widely used as soluble neutron poison in nuclear reactors (boric acid in pressurized water reactors, sodium pentaborate in boiling water reactors), there is a lack of experimental data about aqueous boron solution behavior during loss-of-coolant accidents. The main aims of the REWET boric acid experiments were to study the behavior of aqueous boric acid solution during long-term cooling of a nuclear reactor and to find out the circumstances in which boric acid crystallization takes place. In the experiments, carried out in the facility of a 19-fuel-rod simulator bundle, boric acid crystallization caused the uncovering of the bundle, which always occurred on the water surface. However, crossflows and backflows in a reactor presumably make the concentrations uniform and thus retard crystallization. Therefore, experimental investigations of aqueous boric acid solution behavior will be carried out for the next 2 yr in a larger scale experimental facility. The new facility will be a simulator of the Loviisa VVER-440 reactor with a scaling factor of 1:349 for power and volumes and 1:1 for elevations. The facility will contain a full-scale rod bundle.