Suppression measures and effective triggering retardant of steam explosions

Steam explosion has been a potential threat during severe accident in light water reactors. We had reported that Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is a reliable retardant of steam explosions. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of concentration, molecular weight and salt additives on the controllability of steam explosions. Steam explosion was suppressed with a 0.03 wt% PEG solution for molecular weight of 4 million. This is because the cloudy-point phenomenon stabilizes vapor film and prevents the solution from mixing finely by the precipitated solute near the steam-water interface. The stabilizing effect of vapor film was confirmed in a solid stainless-steel sphere quenching experiment as well. The molecular weight must be selected in reference to the cloudy-point temperature to be lower than saturation temperature by a certain degrees at the target pressure. At atmospheric pressure, a molecular weight of 4 million is demonstrated to suppress steam explosions. The effective concentration became denser when large share stress and/or external force act on the vapor film. Steam explosion may occur in a PEG solution by adding lwt% of sodium chloride, because such salts act as steam explosion promoter.