Since 2007, Electricity of France (EDF) and the Alternatives Energy and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) have launched an R&D collaborative program in order to investigate the reasons of the tube's support plate (TSP) blockage phenomenon (see Fig. 1). To carry out this experimental program, EDF and CEA cofinanced a representative test loop, named COLENTEC. This loop was specifically designed, constructed, and instrumented to realize tests in thermohydraulic and chemical representative conditions and to measure on-line local parameters (thermohydraulic and chemical parameters) expected influencing the different steps of clogging [1].
The evolution of the clogging is a long run, more than 10 years, located mainly in the hot leg, in the upper peripheral zone of the steam generators (SGs). Chemical cleaning is one of the main effective remedies against clogging, but this method is expensive and time-consuming. It seems very interesting to study alternative solutions to avoid clogging....
