Studies on the role of molybdenum on iodine transport in the RCS in nuclear severe accident conditions

•In oxidising conditions, Mo reacts with Cs and thus promotes gaseous iodine release.•In reducing conditions, CsI remains the dominant form for released iodine.•The nature of released iodine is well reproduced by the ASTEC code. The effect of molybdenum on iodine transport in the reactor coolant system (RCS) under PWR severe accident conditions was investigated in the framework of the EU SARNET project. Experiments were conducted at the VTT-Institute and at IRSN and simulations of the experimental results were performed with the ASTEC severe accident simulation code. As molybdenum affects caesium chemistry by formation of molybdates, it may have a significant impact on iodine transport in the RCS. Experimentally it has been shown that the formation of gaseous iodine is promoted in oxidising conditions, as caesium can be completely consumed to form caesium polymolybdates and is thus not available for reacting with gaseous iodine and leading to CsI aerosols. In reducing conditions, CsI remains the dominant form of iodine, as the amount of oxygen is not sufficient to allow formation of quantitative caesium polymolybdates. An I–Mo–Cs model has been developed and it reproduces well the experimental trends on iodine transport.