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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
A. Aiello, I. Ricapito, G. Benamati, R. Valentini
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 872-876
Material Interaction and Permeation | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST41-872
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In considering structural materials for fusion reactors a detailed understanding of the transport parameters and solubility of hydrogen and its isotopes is an important issue which deal with safety and blanket performance aspects. The experimental activities were focused on the determination of hydrogen/deuterium transport parameters through Eurofer 97 in the temperature range 423+723K using a time dependant permeation technique The hydrogen permeation and diffusivity at room temperature and density of trapping sites were also evaluated using Devanathan's technique. Hydrogen / deuterium permeation experiments on Eurofer 97 showed a non-negligible decrease in permeability with respect to other fusion oriented martensitic steels, even if it remains about one order of magnitude higher compared with that of austenitic AISI 316L steel.
