Collection of ENEA technology and expertise
CIRCE Facility
Application sectors
Problem to solve
CIRCE aims to cover research aspects presently missing in the European landscape, but necessary for supporting the design of an LFR. At present, several R&D efforts address the open issues of the LFR technology, including studies on physics-chemistry of the coolant, corrosion of structural materials, pool thermal-hydraulics, and postulated accidental scenarios. The CIRCE facility can help to fill the existing uncertainties on these issues.
Description
The facility is primarily composed of a main tank (S100), a storage tank (S200), and a transfer tank (S300). S100 is designed to host a test section, which can be reconfigured depending on the experimental campaign to be conducted. Both the test section and S100 are capable of housing an electric core simulator with a maximum power of 1 MW. A gas panel is provided for lead conditioning and the supply of argon for the cover gas of the tanks. The lead contained in CIRCE's main vessel can reach a maximum temperature of 500 °C. The conditioning process, which ensures the appropriate oxygen concentration in the lead, is carried out in the main tank. The facility can handle up to 90 tons of lead-bismuth. The storage tank has a capacity of 10,000 liters, while the main vessel can accommodate up to 8,700 liters.
Innovative aspects and advantages
- Ability to perform tests requiring high lead temperatures
- Ability to perform tests requiring large quantities of lead
- Facility suitable for multidisciplinary testing
- Facility suitable for tests of interest for large-scale components, to be implemented in Gen-IV LFR
Admissible applications
- Experimental oxygen content, velocity and void fraction probes & sensors qualification in liquid lead
- System thermal-hydraulic nuclear code, CFD code validation in heavy-liquid metal systems
- Thermal-hydraulic characterization of large-scale components having interest for Gen-IV LFR: e.g heat exchangers, pumps, fuel pin bundles.
- Thermal-hydraulic integral & separate effect tests, in natural and forced circulation conditions of the lead-bismuth coolant, in a big pool
Research group involved
Revision date
11-04-2025
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