Cell dedicated to leaching experiments under gamma irradiation
CEA, France
| Name of the facility | ATALANTE |
| Starting year of operation | 2001 for the High Level Waste unit |
| Brief description | The Atalante facility is devoted to research activities on nuclear fuel cycle and waste management |
| Main Severe Accident research fields | Determination of liquid source term after SA : Leaching experiments on corium samples under gamma irradiation so as to determine the rate of radionuclide transfer into cooling water |
| Scale of the test facility | 8 shielded cells of and glove boxes for R&D studies on highly radioactive materials: material synthesis, sample preparation, physico-chemical characterization, leaching studies, solid state characterization, liquid analyses. |
| Design parameters | Synthesis of radioactive material up to 1750K with a gas treatment unit Leaching studies from room temperature up to 90°C Leaching under gamma irradiation (60Co source) up to 700Gy/h |
| Materials | Can handle highly radioactive materials (spent fuels, corium, nuclear glass…) |
| Topics | Waste management – spent fuel – corium – conditioning matrices (nuclear glass and glass-ceramics) |
| Use of experimental databases | |
| References | B. Grambow, A. Nitta, A. Shibata, Y. Koma, S. Utsunomiya, R. Takami, K. Fueda, T. Ohnuki, C. Jegou, H. Laffolley & C. Journeau (2022) Ten years after the NPP accident at Fukushima : review on fuel debris behavior in contact with water, Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, vol 59:1, 1-24, DOI: 10.1080/00223131.2021.1966347 A. Nakayoshi, C. Jegou, L. De Windt, S. Perrin, T. Washiya (2020) Leaching behavior of prototypical corium samples: A step to understand the interactions between the fuel debris and water at the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, Nuclear Engineering and Design, vol 360, 110522, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110522 |
