This facility comprises a water supply pipe, a quartz test section (110, 180 or 290 mm diameter) in which the debris bed is placed, together with its instrumentation, and a steam relief pipe. It is used to conduct refl ooding tests by means of injecting water onto a bed of metal particles heated by induction. The instrumentation measures the different temperatures and pressures in the debris bed, the fl ow of injected water and the fl ow of generated steam.

The KROTOS test facility is a relatively small scale experimental installation dedicated to the study of: (a) molten fuel-coolant pre-mixing either with prototypic reactor melts or simulants such as alumina up to 5 kg; (b) progression and energetics of spontaneous and triggered fuel-coolant interactions (vapor explosions).

FARO (Furnace And Release Oven) experimental facility began the experiments of the LWR-MFCI phenomena in 1990 in collaboration with several reactor safety research organizations from European Union member countries and with the participation of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

(LWR OFF-NORMAL BEHAVIOUR INVESTIGATION) A Reactor Thermal-Hydraulic Safety Research Programme carried out by the Commission of the European Communities at the Ispra Site of the Joint Research Centre.

This programme sets out to reduce uncertainties when evaluating the environmental release of radioactive products such as iodine or ruthenium following a core meltdown accident in a pressurised water reactor (PWR). The experimental data gained from this programme are used to develop and validate numerical simulation tools needed to assess the consequences of such an accident and to evaluate the efficiency of the prevention means.

The objectives of the FOREVER (Failure Of REactor VEssel Retention) tests are to obtain multiaxial creep deformation and vessel failure data for the scaled reactor vessel geometry under prototypical thermal and pressure loading conditions during hypothetical severe accidents.

The VERCORS programme, which involves tests with short fuel-rod samples, has proved to be a rich source of information regarding FP release and tranport.

The PWR PACTEL test facility is designed and constructed in 2009 to be used in the safety studies related to thermal hydraulics of pressurized water reactors with EPR type vertical steam generators

The PREMIX experiments have been performed to study the premixing of sizable amounts of very hot oxidic melts with water when being released as a jet in a reasonably characterized way and with full optical access. Alumina at 2600 K from a thermite reaction was used to simulate the corium melt. A technique has been developed to retain the molten iron in the source so that the contribution of iron to the melt is well below 10 %. PREMIX involves the full physics of the mixing process including jet break-up and melt drop fragmentation. But, of course, on the other hand, the initial and boundary conditions are more difficult to control and to vary compared to experiments with solid spheres such as QUEOS.

The STORM (Simplified Test On Resuspension Mechanism) facility was designed and operated by JRC-Ispra to work with high concentration of soluble and insoluble aerosol materials (up to 25 g/m3), a wide range of aerosol compositions, size distribution and density and high carrier gas and steam flow rate (about 1kg/s).

The Mozart analytical test program, conducted from 2005 to 2007, was dedicated to the study of oxidation in air of nuclear fuel cladding. This study was part of the International Source Term Program initiated by the IRSN, whose aim is to reduce uncertainties concerning the evaluation of radioactive product emissions into the environment in the event of a core meltdown accident in a pressurized water reactor or a spent fuel storage pool accident.

The VULCANO facility is mainly composed of a furnace and a test section, which is thoroughly instrumented. In the experiments with prototypic material the furnace has the following characteristics:

• Capability to melt oxidic mixtures of various compositions (UO2, ZrO2, SiO2, FeOx) with the possible addition of metals.
• Liquidus temperature of the load between 1700 and 2900 °C.
• Capacity to melt & pour 100 kg. •Continuous low pouring rates (0.1–1 l/s).