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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
Qiufeng Yang, Jianbang Ge, Yafei Wang, Jinsuo Zhang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 11 | November 2020 | Pages 1769-1777
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1757976
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The electrochemical behavior of La2O3 was investigated in LiF-NaF-KF (FLiNaK, 46.5-11.5-42.0 mol %) eutectic at 700°C. In the electrochemical tests, two kinds of working electrodes, i.e., tungsten and graphite, were utilized. The present study showed that La3+ ions can be deposited in the form of La metal on a tungsten cathode or LaC2 on a graphite cathode, and O2− can be removed in the form of CO/CO2 using a graphite anode. Therefore, a graphite or tungsten cathode (for La3+ removal), and a graphite anode (for O2− removal) are good options to remove both La3+ and O2− from the molten salts. In addition to the electrochemical tests, inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy analysis was used to measure the concentration of the lanthanum element and X-ray powder diffraction techniques were applied to determine the chemical forms of lanthanum in the salt. It turned out that the solubility of La3+ in the molten FLiNaK was 6.81 × 10−4 wt% at 700°C and LaOF was formed by the chemical reactions between La2O3 and alkali fluorides during the heating process.
