Nuclear power reactors liquid metal coolants

Nuclear and magneto-hydrodynamic electric power generation systems have been produced on a scale which could lead to industrial production, but to-date technical problems, mainly connected with corrosion of the containing materials, has hampered full-scale development. In the case of nuclear power, the proposed fast reactor, which uses fast neutron fission in a small nuclear fuel element, by comparison with fuel rods in thermal neutron reactors, requires a more rapid heat removal than is possible by water cooling, and a liquid sodium-potassium alloy has been used in the development of a near-industrial generator. The fuel container is a vanadium sheath with a niobium outer cladding, since this has a low fast neutron capture cross-section and a low rate of corrosion by the liquid metal coolant. The liquid metal coolant is transported from the fuel to the turbine generating the electric power in stainless steel... 

Ignatiev, C., Pankratov, D., Toshinskiy G., et al. (2004) Nuclear and Radiation Safety during Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage of Land-based Stands Prototypes of Naval Liquid-metal Coolant Power Reactor Installations - Final Report under the ISTC Project 2710p between the Russian Research Center Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (RRC IPPE) and the Brookhaven National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy, Obninsk (in Russian). 

In the beginning of the 1950s nearly at the same time the USA and USSR launched the development of the nuclear power installations (NPI) for nuclear submarines (NS). In both countries the work was carried out for two types of NPIs with pressurized water reactors and reactors cooled by liquid metal coolant (LMC). 

Analysis of the characteristics of liquid-metal coolants, such as sodium (Na), lead (Pb) and lead-bismuth eutectic (Pb-Bi), makes it possible to decide on the coolant for the new fast reactor considered as a basic component of large-scale nuclear power, which will be capable of taking over the greater part of the electricity generation increase and, possibly, of providing for other energy-intensive processes. 

Thus, comparison between Na, Pb, and Pb-Bi as candidate liquid-metal coolants shows Pb to be the best option for the fast reactors that are considered as a possible basic component of the future large-scale nuclear power industry. 

XIX-3] PANKRATOV, D.V., YEFIMOV, YE.L, TOSHINSKY, GI, RYABAYA L.D., Analysis of polonium hazard in nuclear power installations with lead-bismuth coolant, CD-ROM, Russian Scientific and Technical Forum. Fast Neutron Reactors (To commemorate the 100 birthday of A. I. Leypunsky). Heavy Liquid Metal Coolants in the Nuclear Technologies HLMC-2003 (Proc. of Conf. Obninsk, Russia, December 11-12, 2003) Paper 2401. 

XIX-9] GROMOV, B.F., et al., Nuclear power complex based on SVBR-75/100 small reactors cooled with lead-bismuth liquid metal coolant. Competitiveness, simplified life cycle, safety, non-proliferation. International Seminar on Status and Prospects for Small and Medium Sized Reactors (Proc. of Conf Cairo, Egypt, 2001) IAEA C S Paper Series 14/P, Report IAEA-SR-218/46,Vienna (August 2002). 

XXni-5] SIENICKI, J.J., et al.. The STAR-LM lead-cooled closed fuel cycle fast reactor with a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle advanced power converter, Russian Forum for Science and Technology FAST NEUTRON REACTORS, HLMC-2003 (Paper presented at the 2 Int. Conf. on Heavy Liquid Metal Coolants in Nuclear Technologies, Obninsk, Russia, December 8-12, 2003), paper 2105. 

I he use of sodium and sodium-potassium alloys as reactor coolants has been the subject of a substantial amount of research and development. This has been carried out by various laboratories of the Atomic Energy Commission and subcontractors, in conjimction with nuclear plants such as the experimental breeder reactor and the prototype for the Seawolf power plant. A by-product of this work has been the development of new techniques and equipment for handling liquid metals. 

---