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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
G. Saibene, R. Sartori, F. Reiter
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 808-815
Tritium Properties and Interactions with Material | Proceedings of the Third Topical Meeting on Tritium Technology in Fission, Fusion and Isotopic Applications (Toronto, Ontario, Canada, May 1-6, 1988) | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25234
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The transport of tritium in liquid Pb-17Li has been investigated for different types of capsules and different methods of tritium extraction. Equations describing the tritium release process have been set up and solved, and time-dependent expressions of the outcoming tritium flux have been derived for closed capsules containing stagnant or moving Pb-17Li and for capsules where a He + 0.1% H2 flush gas sweeps the gas phase above the liquid Pb-17Li or bubbles through it. The analytical expressions of the outcoming tritium fluxes depend on tritium diffusivities and solubilities in Pb-17Li and in the container material and on the tritium generation rate in Pb-17Li. The models allow the determination of the characteristic tritium release times when these input parameters are available. The parameters, on the other hand, can be determined by fitting the experimental tritium release data with the theoretical flux equations. The characteristic tritium release time (time to reach 63.2% of the steady state tritium flux) is 14000 s, 7200 s, 2000 s and less than 100 s for the closed stagnant, closed convective, swept and bubbled capsule, respectively, and for the specific conditions of the “Libretto” experiment (Petten - NL).
