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Hindawi Publishing Corporation Science and Technology of Nuclear Installations Volume 2008, Article ID 453621, 5 pages doi:10.1155/2008/453621 Research Article Flow Stagnation under Single and Two-Phase Natural Circulation Conditions in the APEX-CE Test Facility ´ Jose N. Reyes Jr. Department of Nuclear Engineering, The College of Engineering, Radiation Center, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-4501, USA ´ Correspondence should be addressed to Jose N. Reyes Jr., jose.reyes@ Received 30 May 2007; Accepted 29 February 2008 Recommended by John Cleveland Natural circulation experiments were conducted at Oregon State University using the advanced plant experiment (APEX-CE) integral system test facility as configured to simulate a typical 2 × 4 Combustion Engineering nuclear steam supply system. This paper describes the mechanisms by which natural circulation flow was interrupted under single-phase and two-phase natural circulation conditions in APEX-CE. ´ Copyright © 2008 Jose N. Reyes Jr.. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1. INTRODUCTION stratify in the loops and form cold plumes in the downcomer. Should a pre-existing flaw in the vessel wall or welds exist at a Natural circulation is an important means of cooling the location experiencing prolonged contact with a cold plume, nuclear core in the event of a loss of primary system pumps.