Update of the QUENCH program

The main objective of the QUENCH program at KIT is the investigation of the hydrogen source
term and materials interactions during LOCA and the early phase of severe accidents including
reflood. Bundle experiments as well as separate-effects tests are conducted to provide data for
the development of models and the validation of severe fuel damage code systems.
The QUENCH bundle facility is a unique out-of-pile bundle facility with electrically heated fuel
rod simulators and extensive instrumentation. So far, 18 experiments with various severe
accident (SA) scenarios as well as a series of seven DBA LOCA experiments were conducted. The
QUENCH-LOCA series was finished in 2016. One of the main results is the definition of the
conditions for secondary hydriding around the burst position and its influence on the
mechanical properties of the cladding rods.
The last SA test QUENCH-18 in the framework of the EC-China ALISA project with Ag-In-Cd
absorber rods and air ingress phase was conducted end of September 2017. First results were
presented by Stuckert.
Separate-effects tests during 2017 were focused on the interaction of zirconium alloys with
... mehr
atmospheres containing nitrogen as well as on various ATF cladding candidates.
QUENCH bundle tests are part of the validation matrices of most SFD code systems which was
also reflected during the session “Modelling and code validation”.
Finally, the status of reporting and publishing as well as the numerous national and
international cooperations were briefly described and acknowledged.