Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
     In the first series of tests, a few grams of molten lead oxide power were used to simulate corium in a desktop setup. The lead oxide was heated to eighteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. When the lead oxide was molten, it was poured over granular calcite. In a control test for the experiment, the molten lead oxide was also poured over sand which is granular silicon dioxide.
     Louie said, “We saw that the injectable carbonate minerals work. It reacted chemically to produce a lot of carbon dioxide, which ‘leavened’ the lead oxide into a nice cake-like structure. The reaction itself had a cooling effect, and all the pores in the ‘cake’ allow for further cooling.” In the control test with sand, nothing significant happened which was expected.
     Following the first small experiments, kilograms of molten lead oxide and granular calcite were used in more tests. The control tests were also carried out with kilograms of sand. As expected, the expanded tests yielded the same results showing that injecting granular carbonates might be a promising solution that could help prevent the spread of corium in a nuclear accident.
    During the final year of the project, Louie, Wang, Alec Kucala, Rekha Rao and Kyle Ross translated the results of their physical experiments into MELCOR models. They constructed an accident scenario in the software in order to model exactly how the injectable carbonates might affect a real nuclear reactor accident that was similar to the Fukushima accident in March of 2011 in Japan.
     Problems with corium spread have been highlighted by what happened following the Fukushima accident. There was a major earthquake to the northeast of Japan in March of 2011. The earthquake resulted in a tsunami that hit the coast of Fukushima and flooded the emergency generators at the Fukushima nuclear power plant on the coast of Fukushima. Unable to cool the reactors following the accident, the operators could not stop the meltdown of three reactors. Corium formed in all three reactor cores and proceeded to meltdown through the bottom of the reactor vessels. A great deal to time, technology, manpower and money has been expended in the eight years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster and knowledge of the current location of the corium from the three reactors that experienced the meltdowns is still uncertain.
    The situation at Fukushima underscores how important results of the research project at Scandia into retarding the spread of corium following a major nuclear accident are. If the patented carbonate minerals patented recently at Scandia had been available at Fukushima in 2011, the custodians of the damaged reactors would not still be searching for the corium.
     The Scandia research team has what is called a “non-provisional” patent for the injectable minerals that they developed and tested. A provisional patent is simple, informal and quick to file. It allows the patentor to take measure to protect their patent as quickly as possible. A non-provisional patent is long, complicated and difficult to follow. Unlike a provisional patent, a non-provisional patent can be used to issue an enforceable claim. Provisional patents applications are usually followed by non-provisional patent applications.
     Louie says, “After that, we’d be ready to commercialize the technology. These materials could be retrofitted into any existing nuclear reactor design.”