EUROMAT 2007

Symposia B44 - Materials for advanced fission applications

 

Experimental Program on Materials qualification for Heavy liquid metal cooled Transmutation Systems

 

C. Fazio1, A. Almazouzi2, Y. Dai3, A. Doubkova4 A. Gessi5, D. Gorse6, J. Henry7, L. Magielsen8, G. Müller1, L. Soler Crespo9

1 Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

2 Studiecent. voor Kernenerg. - Centre D’Étude de L’Énerg. Nucléaire, Mol, Belgium

3 Paul Scherrer Institut; Switzerland CH-5232 Villigen  PSI, Switzerland

4 Nuclear Research Institute Rez plc, Husinec, Rez, Czech Republic

5 Ente Nazionale per le nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e l’Ambiente, Brasimone, Italy

6 CNRS-CECM, 15 rue Georges Urbain, 94407 Vitry sur Seine cedex, France

7Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, Saclay, France

8Nuclear Research & consultancy Group, PO Box 25, 1755 ZG  Petten, Netherlands

9Centro de Investigac. Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas, Madrid, Spain

 

Abstract

 

The FP6 project EUROTRANS aims to the demonstration of the feasibility to transmute high level nuclear waste with Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS). Within this objective the design of an eXperimental facility (XT-ADS) and a European Facility for Industrial Transmutation (EFIT) are foreseen. Both the XT-ADS and the EFIT are subcritical systems having as coolant Heavy Liquid Metals (HLM) (Pb-Bi eutectic (LBE), Pb) and a liquid metal (usually LBE) spallation target as external neutron source. An important activity of the EUROTRANS project is the performance assessment of the reference structural materials in design relevant conditions. The selected reference materials are the ferritic/martensitic (FM) steel “T91” and the austenitic steel “AISI 316L”. The experimental program foresees the study of these steels and also of Fe, Al based corrosion protection barriers, in contact with HLM, where corrosion kinetics and mechanical properties are investigated. Moreover, irradiation studies are also performed. The irradiation program includes experiments in a fast neutron field (Phénix reactor) and in a proton / neutron field (SINQ spallation source). Experiments to investigate simultaneous effect of LBE and neutron irradiation on the T91 steel are underway in order to assess the stability of the corrosion protection barrier and the mechanical properties changes of the steel. These experiments, which are unique in their kind, are being performed in the reactors BR2 and HFR.

The aim of this work is to discuss the rationale of the materials R&D program, which has been defined taking into account past experimental programs and the operational conditions of the subcritical systems as specified by the Design team. First experimental results will be also presented and discussed.

 

 

This work is supported by the EC FP6 Project EUROTRANS under the contract: FI6W-CT-2005-516520