Experimental study of transient phenomena in the three-liquid oxidic-metallic corium pool

Non-steady physicochemical phenomena in the three-liquid molten pool of prototypic corium are studied in the context of in-vessel melt retention problem. Experiments are made on the Rasplav-3 test facility within the CORDEB program. Structure of the initial molten pool consists of the surface light melt of molten steel, the intermediate layer of oxidic melt separated from steel melt by the crust; and the bottom layer of heavy metallic melt. It is determined that the three-layer pool structure can stay stable for a certain period of time, but the partitioning of steel and oxidic melt components through the crust brings the possibility of transformation of the three-layer pool to a two-layer structure.