Multi-dimensional condensation behavior during ingress of coolant event experiments for fusion reactors with TRACE code

An Ingress of Coolant (ICE) event is defined as the intrusion of high-temperature, high-pressure coolant water into the plasma chamber of a nuclear fusion reactor. This phenomenon constitutes a critical safety concern, as it has the potential to result in the release of radioactive materials into the surrounding environment. Consequently, a proper assessment of an ICE must be made in the design of fusion reactors. Prior to the construction of ITER, the Integrated ICE Facility was constructed at the Naka Laboratory of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) in Japan to validate the computational code for the pressure suppression system in ITER against the obtained experimental data. This study examined the Integrated ICE Facility utilizing the TRACE code for two wall-thermal boundary conditions. By comparing the calculated and experimental values, it was found that the TRACE code could adequately evaluate the injected flow rate and pressure inside the plasma chamber. The discrepancy was partly attributed to the number of cells required to capture multidimensional water levels. Furthermore, it was determined that the timestep size exhibited a close relationship with the pressure within the suppression tank. • TRACE code is validated with the simulated ingress of coolant event (ICE) experiment. • Thermal-hydraulic parameters were varied to explain the chronology of ICE. • Cell size must be small enough to capture the condensation behavior at water level.