3D Simulation of a Loss of Vacuum Accident (LOVA) in ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor): Evaluation of Static Pressure, Mach Number, and Friction Velocity

Jean-François Ciparisse, Riccardo Rossi, Andrea Malizia and Pasquale Gaudio
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Jean-François Ciparisse: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
Riccardo Rossi: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
Andrea Malizia: Department of Medicine and Prevention, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy
Pasquale Gaudio: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, 00133 Rome, Italy

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 4, 1-16

Abstract: ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is a magnetically confined plasma nuclear reactor. Inside it, due to plasma disruptions, the formation of neutron-activated powders, which are essentially made out of tungsten and beryllium, occurs. As many windows for diagnostics are present on the reactor, which operates at very low pressure, a LOVA (Loss of Vacuum Accident) could be possible and may lead to dust mobilisation and a toxic and radioactive fallout inside the plant. This study is aimed at reproducing numerically the first seconds of a LOVA in ITER, in order to get information about the dust resuspension risk. This work has been carried out by means of a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation of the beginning of the pressurisation transient inside the whole Tokamak. It has been found that the pressurization transient is extremely slow, and that the friction speed on the walls is very high, and therefore a high mobilization risk of the dust is expected on the entire internal surface of the reactor. It has been observed that a LOVA in a real-scale reactor is more severe than the one reproduced in reduced-scale facilities, as STARDUST-U, because the speeds are higher, and the dust resuspension capacity of the flow is greater.

Keywords: LOVA; dust resuspension; CFD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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