ASTEC, COCOSYS, and LIRIC Interpretation of the Iodine Behavior in the Large-Scale THAI Test Iod-9

Abstract

The large-scale iodine test Iod-9 of the German Thermal hydraulics, Hydrogen, Aerosols, Iodine (THAI) program was jointly interpreted by means of post-test analyses within the THAI Circle of the Severe Accident Research NETwork (SARNET)/Work Package 16. In this test, molecular iodine (I2) was injected into the vessel dome of the 60 m3 THAI vessel to observe the evolution of its distribution between water, gas, and surfaces. The main processes addressed in Iod-9 are (a) the mass transfer of I2 between the gas and the two sumps, (b) the iodine transport in the main sump when it is stratified and then mixed, and (c) the I2 adsorption onto, and desorption from, the vessel walls in the presence and absence of wall condensation. The codes applied by the THAI Circle partners were the Accident Source Term Evaluation Code (ASTEC)-IODE (IRSN, Saint Paul Lez Durance, France), Containment Code System (COCOSYS)-Advanced Iodine Model (AIM) (GRS, Garching, Germany), and Library of Iodine Reactions in Containment (LIRIC; AECL, Chalk River, ON, Canada). ASTEC-IODE and the Advanced Iodine Model (AIM) are semi-empirical iodine models integrated in the lumped-parameter codes ASTEC and COCOSYS, respectively. With both codes multicompartment iodine calculations can be performed. LIRIC is a mechanistic iodine model for single stand-alone calculations. The simulation results are compared with each other and with the experimental measurements. Special issues that were encountered during this work were studied in more details: I2 diffusion in the sump water, I2 reaction with the steel of the vessel wall in gaseous and aqueous phases, and I2 mass transfer from the gas to the sump. Iodine transport and behavior in THAI test Iod-9 are fairly well simulated by ASTEC-IODE, COCOSYS-AIM, and LIRIC in post-test calculations. The measured iodine behavior is well understood and all measured data are found to be consistent. The very slow iodine transport within the stratified main sump was simulated with COCOSYS only, in a qualitative way. Consequently, this work highlighted the need to improve modeling of (a) the wet iodine adsorption and the washdown from the walls, (b) the I2 mass transfer between gas and sump, and (c) the I2/steel reaction in the gaseous and aqueous phases. In any case, the analysis of the large-scale iodine test Iod-9 has been an important validation step for the codes applied.