Aluminum oxide pressure casting

It is alloyed with about 4% A1 and 0.02% Mg. The aluminum strengthens the zinc and also prevents the molten alloy from attacking the steel pressure casting dies. Zinc readily reacts with mercury or will displace mercury from a mercury(II) salt to form an amalgam that is usefril for reductions, as in the preparation of compounds of the lower oxidation states of transition metals and lanthanides (e.g. Cr , V , Eu°, dimeric Mo ) and in analytical chemistry (e.g. in the Jones reductor see Analytical Chemistry of the Transition Elements). 

A melt generator (Figure 2 that consisted of a steel pressure barrier, a cast Mgo crucible, and a thin steel inner liner modeled the RPV. The melt generator/crucible had a hemispherical bottom head that contained 43 kg of compacted iron oxide/aluminum/chromium thermite to simulate molten core debris. The bottom of the melt generator held a graphite limitor plate with a 4-cm exit hole to simulate the ablated hole in the RPV bottom head that would be formed by tube ejection in a severe NPP accident. 

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