Development of Interfaces for Coupled Calculations for the Analysis of Hydrogen Safety of Tokamak Thermonuclear Facilities

Abstract

During accidents at tokamak-like thermonuclear facilities (TNF) initiated by the loss of coolant from the cooling system of the first wall or divertor into the vacuum vessel (VV), steam ejected into the VV reacts exothermically with hot metal surfaces and dust. This is accompanied by the formation of hydrogen and produces a risk of explosion of the hydrogen-air mixture when hydrogen escapes outside the VV or when air enters the VV. Safety analysis of TNF requires numerical estimates of the amount and rate of hydrogen production, the composition of the gas atmosphere, and the possibility of hydrogen stratification. For these purposes, IBRAE RAS is developing the integral code PHAETON and the CFD code CABARET-T. The paper presents a description of interfaces for performing coupled calculations using these codes and provides the results of test calculations for a simplified model of the ITER VV.