Existing heavy liquid metal facilities for experimental applications

Abstract

The use of the heavy liquid metals (HLM), lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) and lead (Pb) as cooling mediums and spallation material has been envisaged for accelerator-driven systems (ADS), which are devoted to transmutation, thus reducing the burden of nuclear waste. An increasing interest in HLM has also been identified in other research and industrial fields, for instance energy production with advanced nuclear systems, e.g. the lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR), hydrogen production and the development of spallation neutron sources for medical applications and materials studies. Moreover, HLM might also play a future role in the development of concentrated solar power plants. Therefore, scientific and technological activities focused on materials compatibility, thermal fluid dynamics characterisation and technology issues have been launched. In this framework a great effort has been made in Europe, Japan, Korea and the United States since the late 1990s to build and operate HLM test facilities in support of the previously mentioned applications. In the following paragraphs updated descriptions of the HLM facilities available at the laboratories of the expert groups participating in the realisation of this handbook are given. An updated list of the facilities is also given in Table 12.4.1 at the end of this chapter. The update has been done with respect to the 2007 version of the HLM handbook, as new facilities have been built and existing facilities have been refurbished or dismantled. In particular, the new and existing facilities built in Europe as well as the future needs have been analysed within the Advanced Reactor Initiative and Network Arrangement (ADRIANA) project. The outcomes of this project and the input received from the experts have been used to update the chapter. As far as the dismantled facilities are concerned, these have been removed from this edition of the handbook.JRC.E-Institute for Transuranium Elements (Karlsruhe