Aerosol formation during air ingress into the core of a pebble high temperature reactor

This project investigates the aerosol formation during a simulated air ingress into the core of a high temperature gas cooled reactor. A pressure discharge of the primary system and a failure of the residual heat removal system result in natural convection of air through the reactor core, if there are two or more leakages between primary circuit and containment. Under normal operation conditions the surface temperature of the graphite pebbles is below 1200 K. During accidents of core heat up these temperatures can rise up to 1850 K, generated by residual heat production and exothermic corrosion reactions. The chemical reaction of the pebble graphite with oxygen forms the corrosion products CO and CO sub(2) and leads to the erosion of a fraction of the graphite spheres.