Abstract
Experiments were carried out to study the mass transfer of iodine from a xenon-iodine mixed gas bubble to a liquid sodium pool. The bubble was generated in the pool by cracking a quartz glass ball which contains the xenon-iodine mixed gas. The mixed gas released into the argon cover gas was collected to determine the transferred iodine mass into the sodium pool. A rising velocity of the bubble was measured by Chen-type sensors arranged vertically in the pool. From the measured rising velocity and another observation of bubble behavior in simulated water experiments, it is found that the generated bubble breaks up into several smaller bubbles of spherical cap type during the rising period. Transferred iodine mass per the unit initial bubble volume from the bubbles to the sodium pool shows increases with increasing time and the initial iodine concentration. A mass transfer rate obtained by differentiating the transferred iodine mass with respect to the time indicates a rapid decrease just after the bubble generation and a slow decrease for the successive period. Measured decontamination factors are described as a function of the time and the iodine concentration.
