Design of a liquid sodium test loop: For sodium-cooled fast reactor materials and chemistry research
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Date
2023-04
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
One promising advanced nuclear reactor technology is the sodium-cooled fast reactor, including ARC Clean Technology’s ARC-100 reactor planned for deployment in New Brunswick. In this work, a liquid sodium test loop is designed to provide research capacity focusing on the corrosion of advanced materials, mass transport, chemistry, and model and instrumentation development. The test loop will simulate non-isothermal sodium heat transport loops operating between a cold leg up to 400°C and a hot leg up to 625°C. Liquid sodium will circulate through a main loop with test vessels and test sections including: fuel pin simulators for cladding testing under heat flux and high velocity flow; a sodium-sodium heat exchanger with a removable tube bundle to simulate intermediate temperature conditions; and, test pots for the insertion of material specimens and instrumentation in liquid sodium. The main sodium loop will be supported by a flexible secondary loop for purification and chemistry diagnostics.