Experimental Results of PbLi-Water Reaction Performed in LIFUS5/Mod3 Separate Effect Test Facility

Abstract

A major safety concern addressed during the design of the water-cooled lead-lithium (PbLi) breeding blanket (BB) is represented by an in-box loss-of-coolant accident, where high-pressure water is supposed to interact with PbLi inside the BB. Code development activities are being carried out to create the needed tools for the safety analysis of these systems in the case of incidental scenarios, which are supported by extensive experimental campaigns that aim at providing data for SIMMER code verification and validation (V&V). In this regard, the present work aims at presenting the dataset generated during the Series D experimental campaign performed at the LIFUS5/Mod3 facility operated at the ENEA Brasimone Research Centre. This is a separate effect facility able to simulate the mixing of water and PbLi alloy in conditions of temperature and pressure similar to the ones encountered by the system during nominal operation and to acquire significant data on all the relevant thermochemical parameters. Moreover, a preliminary analysis of the data has been performed to critically determine the quality of the data and to identify possible issues in the experimental process. In the end, the foreseen extension of the experimental work is described, as well as the foreseen application of the acquired data in the code V&V activities.

Keywords:

• Chemical reaction
• SIMMER code validation
• LIFUS5/Mod3
• water-cooled lead-lithium breeding blanket
• in-box LOCA

Acronyms

BB:	=	breeding blanket
DP:	=	differential pressure transducer
DSA:	=	deterministic safety analysis
EoI:	=	end of injection
EoT:	=	end of transient
LOCA:	=	loss-of-coolant accident
PbLi:	=	lead lithium
PHTS:	=	primary heat transport system
PT:	=	piezoresistive high-temperature transducer
P&ID:	=	piping and instrumentation diagram
SoT:	=	start of transient
S1B:	=	S1B reaction vessel
S3V:	=	S3V safety release vessel
S4B1:	=	S4B1 fresh PbLi storage tank
S4B2:	=	S4B2 depleted PbLi storage tank
TC:	=	thermocouple
V&V:	=	verification and validation
WCLL:	=	water-cooled lead-lithium
2D:	=	two-dimensional

Acknowledgments

This work has been carried out within the framework of the EUROfusion Consortium and has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014–2018 and 2019–2020 under grant agreement number 633053. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Euratom [633053].