Technology Transfer Department

Application sectors

Problem to solve

Advances in nuclear energy research have led to the development of advanced systems cooled by liquid metal. It is therefore necessary to study the behavior of such materials under both operational and accidental conditions in order to ensure the required safety standards. In particular, the liquid metal-water interaction represents a potential accidental scenario that could occur due to the rupture of a high-pressure water coolant tube inside key components (Steam Generators in GenIV fission reactors and tWCLL BB in tokamak fusion reactors).

Description

. These results were fulfilled and the acquired measurements contributed to enlarge existing databases, providing an advancement in supporting the design of liquid metal reactors. The second configuration (B) is operated in the framework of nuclear fusion R&D, with the aim of investigating the interaction phenomenology between lead-lithium alloy and water. These two fluids interact both thermodynamically and chemically, generating heat and hydrogen. The facility is equipped with sensors at acquisition frequency of up to 10 kHz, able to analyze the rapid behavior of the pressure transient, pressure wave propagation and deformation. The experimental facility is also equipped with instrumentation to characterize the injection of water into the metal alloy, thermocouples to study the temperature evolution inside the vessel, and a hydrogen measurement system. Currently, 25 experimental tests have been executed. The acquired data are suitable for numerical code validation used both to support the design and for deterministic safety analyses.

Research group involved