Lead-Bismuth Activities at the Karlsruhe Lead Laboratory KALLA

Abstract

At Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK) the characteristics of an accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) are evaluated, mainly with respect to the potential of transmutation of minor actinides and long-lived fission products, to the feasibility and to safety aspects. All experimental activities, which are related to lead-bismuth as cooling fluid and spallation material, are performed in the KArlsruhe Lead LAboratory KALLA. This article gives an overview on KALLA, which has three stagnant experiments and three loop experiments. The stagnant experiments are concentrating on corrosion mechanisms, surface treatment, oxygen sensor development, and oxygen control system (OCS), the loop experiments are concentrating on thermalhydraulic measurement techniques, ADS-relevant component testing, and corrosion investigations in flowing lead-bismuth. A fourth loop experiment is planned to investigate the integral heat removal from a 4 MW spallation target for normal and decay heat removal conditions. Among others, latest results are presented of: characteristics of oxygen sensors in flowing liquid Pb-Bi, the oxygen control system (OCS) operating on a loop system, an ultrasonic flow meter applied to lead-bismuth at 400°C. In addition, results are given on the improvement of the corrosion resistivity of steels in flowing lead-bismuth, using a special temperature treatment method (electron beam facility GESA) and alloying aluminium in the surface layer.

Spectroscopic and microscopic investigation of the corrosion of 316/316L stainless steel by lead–bismuth eutectic (LBE) at elevated temperatures: importance of surface preparation

“…Other workers [15][16][17][18] examining 316 and 316L samples have found both behaviors: the formation of thin protective layers and thicker heterogeneous layers with iron oxide on the surface. Since LBE is not included in the oxide layer, we feel that a comparison with gas phase oxidation studies is appropriate.…”

“…Chemical compatibility tests were conducted of martensitic and austenitic steels [8,12,[14][15][16][17][18], and mechanical tests [19] were conducted in both liquid lead and LBE.…”

Mass transfer of iron impurities in LBE loops under non-isothermal flow conditions

“…At active oxygen control [10,[16][17][18][19][20], the steel is supposed to form magnetite dissociating as:…”

Idaho National Laboratory Lead or Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) Test Facility - R&D Requirements, Design Criteria, Design Concept, and Concept Guidance

“…KALLA currently has an operational LBE loop using an electromagnetic pump originally designed for sodium. 55 Due to low pump efficiency it adds enough heat to the system that piping heaters can be turned off at steady state conditions. Sodium has lower density and low resistively, resulting in a very low efficiency when sodium pumps are used in LBE.…”