SODIUM BURNING AND AEROSOL RELEASE: AN EVALUATION OF THE STATE OF THE ART.

In a sodium-cooled reactor, the possibility of sodium fires and the resultant release of aerosols strongly influence containment vessel design and operating safety criteria.Q1.1alitative investigations of sodium pool fires and spray fires have been carried out in conjunction with each major sodium-cooled reactor project.Recently, rnure quantitative studies were undertaken in these areas, and the problem of explosive injection of sodium sprays into containment volumes was investigated.Wo.r•k is also under way to characterize aerosols released i'rom sodium fires and to define their performance in the containment volume.This docliment briefly summarizes the work to date on sodium fires and aerosol .release,reviews the scope of current programs, and then proposes additional effort to provide safety criteria for liquidmetal-cooled fast-reactor design.