Behavior Estimation Focusing on the Existing Form of Hydrogen in Sodium in Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors

Abstract

In the cooling system of sodium-cooled fast reactors, it is required to identify and rapidly detect hydrogen explosively produced by the sodium-water reaction when a water leak occurs due to damage of a heat exchanger tube in a steam generator (SG), in contrast to low-concentration background hydrogen permeating through SG tubes during normal operation. In the present study, we focus on the difference between the background hydrogen and the hydrogen generated by the sodium-water reaction, and theoretically estimate the hydrogen behavior in liquid sodium by using computational chemistry methods. We find that dissolved H or NaH, rather than H₂, is the predominant form of the background hydrogen in liquid sodium, and that hydrogen produced in large amounts by the sodium-water reaction can exist stably as fine bubbles with a NaH layer on their surface.