Liquid metal chemical reaction safety in fusion facilities

Piet, Steven J.; Jeppson, D.W.; Muhlestein, L.D.; Kazimi, Mujid S.; Corradini, Michael L.

doi:10.1016/s0920-3796(87)90032-9

Cited by 35 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Concerns about the reactivity of liquid lithium and resultant hydrogen production were a primary motivator in the development of lead-lithium eutectic as a breeder material [39] (and sometimes coolant), now the favored liquid breeder in US and other fusion power plant designs. The relative hazard of Li or PbLi reactions with water depends on the contact mode; five such modes are identified by [38].…”

Section: Liquid Metal Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This will exacerbate the overpressurization inside the blanket box and possibly result in a hydrogen ingress into the vacuum vessel in case of a box failure. Since 0.5 moles of hydrogen can be generated per mole of lithium, it can be generated in sufficient quantities to put the vacuum vessel at risk in the event of air ingress; 3530 kg of PbLi eutectic (∼0.68% Li by weight [39]) would be capable of generating the 4 kg ITER VV hydrogen limit. For comparison, this is less than the lithium inventory of a single ITER TBM (about 2760 kg of PbLi based on the breeding zone volume given by Kleefeldt [24]), but clearly this too becomes an issue when scaling up to a full size blanket.…”

Section: Liquid Metal Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition to the risk to the VV, it has been estimated that ∼100 m 3 of PbLi can even generate sufficient quantities to reach the 4% lower explosion limit in a representative building (e.g. the 250,000 m 3 STARFIRE building [39]). The risk of such a catastrophic hydrogen explosion can only be completely eliminated if water coolant is avoided in lead lithium systems.…”

Section: Liquid Metal Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The use of water in a fusion power core

Tillack

Humrickhouse

Malang³

et al. 2015

Fusion Engineering and Design

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a b s t r a c tWater has both advantages and disadvantages as a coolant in conceptual designs of future fusion power plants. In the United States, water has not been chosen as a fusion power core coolant for decades. Researchers in other countries continue to adopt water in their designs, in some cases as the leading or sole candidate. In this article, we summarize the technical challenges resulting from the choice of water coolant and the differences in approach and assumptions that lead to different design decisions amongst researchers in this field.

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Section: Liquid Metal Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Liquid Metal Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Liquid Metal Breedersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The use of water in a fusion power core

Tillack

Humrickhouse

Malang³

et al. 2015

Fusion Engineering and Design

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“…Fluid and electrical sealing of both chambers is needed. Required voltages to be applied for small cells (litres) are below 100 V and should be experimentally optimized [44,45].…”

Section: Cell Housing Materials and Electric Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary studies of in-cell electrophoresis as 6Li enrichment technique

Barrado

Fernández

Conde

et al. 2011

Fusion Engineering and Design

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“…The first lithium pool fire experiments were begun in 1978 at HEDL to characterize lithium pool interactions with air, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and steam and lithiumlead pool interactions with air [3,6]. The interactions with nitrogen and carbon dioxide were of interest as, in light of the high reactivity of lithium with air, it was suggested to use nitrogen or carbon dioxide as a cover gas in the reactor containment building.…”

Section: Hedl Pool Fire Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The chemical kinetics of the reactions of lithium with steam-air mixtures

Barnett¹,

Kazimi²

1989

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This work involved the experimental and analytical determination of the consequences of lithium fires in the presence of steam. Experiments were performed to characterize the chemical reactions of lithium with steam-nitrogen and steam-air mixtures. Models were introduced in the LITFIRE code to describe lithium fires in the presence of steam inside the containment building and plasma chamber of a hypothetical fusion reactor. The code was also equipped with the capability to determine the effects of decay heat and lithium fires on the temperature response of the reactor first wall in the event of a coolant disturbance. Forty-two kinetics experiments were performed in which a stream of steam-nitrogen or steam-air was passed over and reacted with approximately three grams of lithium heated to a predetermined temperature. The lithium reaction rates with the constituent gases were measured and characterized for a wide range of lithium temperatures and gas compositions. Experiments were performed with steam molar concentrations of 5, 15 and 30% and lithium temperatures ranging from 400 to 11000 C, inclusive. The results of the kinetics experiments showed that the steam served to catalyze the lithium-nitrogen reaction at temperatures under 7000 C. The catalytic effect was observed to decrease exponentially as a function of the lithium temperature until it vanished above 700* C. The catalytic effect was greater in the steam-air experiments than in the steam-nitrogen experiments. The lithium-steam reaction rates were observed to be independent of the lithium temperature but they were reduced by the presence of oxygen in air. If nitrogen was used as a reactor cover gas it would have to be kept dry, as a lithium-nitrogen fire in the presence of steam could burn more fiercely than was previously thought. The LITFIRE code was modified to enable it to model the interactions of lithium with steam-air atmospheres. The results of the reaction kinetics experiments were used in the reaction model, and the heat. transfer model was expanded to allow it to handle condensible atmospheres. Three groups of accidents were investigated: a spill on the containment building floor, a spill inside the reactor plasma chamber, and a spill inside the plasma chamber with steam injection to the containment building simulating a steam line break. The results were compared to dry air cases under the same conditions. The results of all three groups showed that the most important effect of the presence of water vapor was the increased heat transfer to the cell gases, prinmarily due to the higher gas thermal emissivity. In the containment building fire, where the lithium pool was relatively insulated, the measured emissivity served to increase the gas temperature and pressure with little effect on the pool or combustion zone. The maximum predicted pool and combustion zone temperatures were 1000* C and 1250* C, respectively. In the plasma chamber fires, the lithium pool was cooled indirectly by the containment building atmosphere and the maximum pool and ...

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Liquid metal chemical reaction safety in fusion facilities

Cited by 35 publications

References 13 publications

The use of water in a fusion power core

The use of water in a fusion power core

Preliminary studies of in-cell electrophoresis as 6Li enrichment technique

The chemical kinetics of the reactions of lithium with steam-air mixtures

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