Technical Bases for Experimentation on Source Term Mitigation: The EU-PASSAM Project

After the Fukushima-1 accident one of the main concerns of the nuclear industry has been the search for even better source term mitigation systems. The motivation underneath is to enhance as much as feasible the performance of in-plant devices, so that their decontamination efficiency is not jeopardized under any expected or unexpected conditions. This paper introduces the PASSAM project objectives and structure (Grant agreement n° 323217 – Euratom 7th Framework Programme) and the technical bases for the experimental programs proposed. A number of issues worth to be investigated is highlighted on both conventional systems, like aqueous ponds and sand bed filters, and innovative ones, like acoustic agglomerators, high pressure sprays, electrostatic precipitators and improved zeolites. Among them, long term behaviour of retention systems, removal efficiency of gaseous iodine species (particularly high volatility organic iodides) and systems performance under challenging conditions, are considered of utmost interest. In addition, the enhanced performance of combined wet-dry filters of specific FCVS is planned to be experimentally proved. Based on these grounds, the conditions prevailing at the time systems are assumed to work, and the experimental capabilities of a number of facilities at several European laboratories, a set of experimental matrices have been devised and are under execution.