ToF-SIMS and XPS characterizations of model fission products (I, Cs) deposits after thermal treatment simulating late phase conditions of a nuclear power plant severe accident

Abstract

During a Severe Accident (SA) occurring in a nuclear power plant, many Fission Products (FP) are released from the degraded fuel and are transported in the Reactor Coolant System (RCS). Depending on their volatility, FP can be either deposited on the surface of the Reactor Coolant System (RCS) or transported into the containment building from where they may be released into the environment in case of early containment failure. This was the case for the Fukushima Daiichi (FD) accident with important FP releases which were observed following the containment vessel failure which lasted up to several weeks after the accident. If early phase releases were well predicted by SA simulation codes, delayed releases were not correctly predicted [1]. Such discrepancies can be attributed to the revaporization of deposits inside the RCS which were not yet modeled in the SA simulation tools. Previous experiments over the past 20 years evidenced the possible formation and revaporization of CsI [2]. However, up to now, no clear CsI revaporization mechanism has been determined. In order to propose a mechanism, this study (scheduled within the OECD/NEA/ESTER project) aims at determining the speciation of each species remaining on the substrate after revaporization tests under different conditions using XPS and ToF-SIMS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. These two combined techniques allow the identification of the main species of the residue leading to the proposition of two revaporization reactions.