Lead–<scp>B</scp>ismuth Eutectic (<scp>LBE</scp>): A Coolant Candidate for Gen. <scp>IV</scp> Advanced Nuclear Reactor Concepts

Zhang, Jinsuo

doi:10.1002/adem.201300296

Cited by 56 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 71 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…This occurs when fusion or fission neutrons are captured by 209 Bi, followed by a β – decay into 210 Po. The 209 Bi isotope is present in small quantities in the liquid Pb–Li tritium breeding blanket of a fusion reactor as well as in the Pb coolant of a fast fission reactor, and in much larger quantities in fast fission reactors that use Pb–Bi eutectic (LBE) as a coolant . The relevant reaction chain is …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Po-Containing Molecules in Fusion and Fission Reactors

Mertens

Aerts

Infante

et al. 2019

J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fission and fusion reactors can only play a role in the future energy landscape if they are inherently safe by design. For some reactor concepts, a major remaining issue is the undesired production of radiotoxic 210 Po. To filter out the volatile Po species, information on their molecular composition is needed. An experimental characterization is very challenging due to the large required amount of radioactive Po. An alternative quantum chemistry approach was taken to predict the temperature-dependent stability of relevant diatomic Po-containing molecules. Experimental data on lighter analogue molecules was used to establish a well-founded methodology. The relative occurrence of the Po species was estimated in the cover gas of (i) the lead−bismuth eutectic coolant in the accelerator-driven MYRRHA fission reactor and (ii) the Pb−Li eutectic tritium breeder in the DEMO fusion reactor. In both systems, Po is found to occur mainly as PbPo molecules and atomic Po.N uclear power can only play a role in the energy mix for the second half of this century if future fusion and fission reactors 1,2 are inherently safe by design. In this work, we focus on the undesired, yet inevitable, 210 Po production in some of the envisioned reactor concepts. This occurs when fusion or fission neutrons are captured by 209 Bi, followed by a β − decay into 210 Po. The 209 Bi isotope is present in small quantities in the liquid Pb−Li tritium breeding blanket of a fusion reactor as well as in the Pb coolant of a fast fission reactor, and in much larger quantities in fast fission reactors that use Pb−Bi eutectic (LBE) as a coolant. 3 The relevant reaction chain is 4

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Po-Containing Molecules in Fusion and Fission Reactors

Mertens

Aerts

Infante

et al. 2019

J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, they have different melting point temperatures 14 . The melting point of Pb‐Bi eutectic is lower than nat Pb yet has a boiling point that is almost the same as Pb 15 . The utilization of Pb‐Bi eutectic as a reflector and coolant provides a harder neutron spectrum.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary Natural uranium is utilized in a small percentage by the Light Water Reactor (LWR) and also by the once‐through Fast Breeder Reactor. One of the reactor designs that can increase the natural uranium utilization is the MCANDLE (Modified Constant Axial shape of Neutron flux, nuclides densities, and power shape During Life of Energy production) reactor. The scheme divides the core into several discrete regions. The modified CANDLE reactor will only need natural uranium as fuel input after reaching quasi‐equilibrium conditions. In this study, We used a core with certain Plutonium (Pu) composition in each region as a startup core. Initially, the Pu content in each region imitates that of the reactor core at the quasi‐equilibrium state. We calculated the neutronics of the initial core by the SRAC that stands for Standard Reactor Analysis Code System and used JENDL 4.0 as a nuclear data library. Plutonium (Pu) from LWR spent fuel was utilized as the initial reactor fuel. However, excess reactivity is more than 10%. It is because there are no other fission products. Therefore, we replace other fission products with a reduction in the volume of fuel cells. The volume reduction was adjusted to the level of burnup in each region at the quasi‐equilibrium condition. Hence, there are differences in the volume reduction ratio for each fuel cell. The method can reduce excess reactivity to 5%. The reduction of the volume of fuel cells can also reduce the amount of plutonium as the initial fuel for the reactor core. Also, the spent fuel burnup is 48% FIMA. The design could increase the utilization of natural uranium without an enrichment process.

show abstract

“…However, they appeared to be more aggressive at high temperature against steels than LBE, and therefore were no longer investigated [6]. As mentioned in the literature (e.g., [11][12][13][14][15]), lead and LBE have a low melting point (respectively very close to 327 and 125 • C) and a high boiling point (respectively close to 1745 and 1670 • C) which allows working at high temperature. Moreover, thanks to the inertness with air and water, it is highlighted that its use makes a lead or LBE-cooled reactor safe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Surface Modifications for Corrosion Mitigation of Steels in Lead and LBE

Vogt

Serre

2021

Coatings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The review paper starts with the applications of liquid metals and then concentrates on lead and lead–bismuth eutectic used in Gen IV nuclear reactors and accelerator-driven systems. Key points of degradation modes of austenitic stainless steels and ferritic-martensitic steels, candidates for the structural components, are briefly summarized. Corrosion and liquid metal embrittlement are critical issues that must be overcome. Next, the paper focuses on the strong efforts paid to the mitigation of corrosion and reviews the different solutions proposed for the protection of steels in lead and lead–bismuth eutectic. There exist promising solutions based on protection by deposition of protective coatings or protection by “natural” oxidation resulting from optimized chemical composition of the steels. However, the solutions have to be confirmed especially by longer-term experiments and by additional mechanical testing.

show abstract

Lead–Bismuth Eutectic (LBE): A Coolant Candidate for Gen. IV Advanced Nuclear Reactor Concepts

Cited by 56 publications

References 71 publications

Po-Containing Molecules in Fusion and Fission Reactors

Po-Containing Molecules in Fusion and Fission Reactors

Initial core design analysis of lead (208) ‐bismuth eutectic‐cooled reactor with radial fuel shuffling

A Review of the Surface Modifications for Corrosion Mitigation of Steels in Lead and LBE

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About