Study of fission product loaded aerosols from core melting experiments

A severe nuclear reactor accident may result in the meltdown of the reactor core. The formation of the core melt is accompanied by the appearance of aerosols consisting of vaporized and recondensed core constituents. The investigation of aerosol samples, which were generated in a laboratory scale core melting experiment and collected during a temperature range Of 1200–1900°C of the melting charge, was performed using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and revealed silver, cadmium, indium, tellurium, iodine and cesium as constituents of the aerosol surface. The metal components were present as either oxides or hydroxides with the exception of silver, which remained in its metallic state.