RESEARCH PROGRAM ON COMPLETION OF JUSTIFICATIONS FOR

The approximate scope of work that is yet to be performed to fully justify the use of materials in the reactor plant in accordance with Russian legislation is determined by regulatory documents. According to the content of the work, it is determined by the already canceled document, PNAE G-7-008-89 (ANNEX 11) [8], which despite the changing in current licensing process, can be used as a guide.

In substantiation of service properties of structural materials scheduled:

— study of long-term strength, plasticity and creep;

— study of cyclic strength and kinetics of crack growth during cyclic tests of steel and its welded joints in presence of coolant;

— radiation studies of steel in a narrower area corresponding to normal operation to increase statistics;

— annealing conditions of steel and its characteristics after annealing mode. The future R & D program will focus on the following pilot activities:

— irradiation tests of fuel rods in BOR-60 and BN-600 reactor plants;

— resource tests of models of steam generators (on the first and second circuits);

— primary pumps resource tests;

— creation of an experimental facilities for the study of physical and chemical processes in the conditions of destruction of the core elements.

One of the key directions of the R & D program implemented in support of the SVBR-100 reactor design is the definition and justification of safety and design limits of the core elements.

In accordance with the General provisions on the safety of nuclear power plants (NP-001-15) :

"the design of a NPP should provide limits and conditions for safe operation and technical means and organizational measures aimed at preventing violations of limits and conditions of safe operation ..." For new projects, which include the project SVBR-100, the project should be justified by basic safety criteria, including the values of design safety limits (clause 1.1.2). The main focus of future R & D for the qualification of materials for SVBR-100 will be:

— in-depth study of extreme states of materials;

— damage mechanisms for specific structures and processes under the influence of damaging factors;

— study of the chemical interaction of structural materials, fuel and coolant at extreme temperatures corresponding postulated severe accidents.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In conclusion the authors express their gratitude to the large team of specialists of SSC RF – IPPE, JSC EDO "GIDROPRESS", SSC RF RIAR, CRISM “Prometey”, all employees took part in preparing and holding such a large-scale and labor-intensive long-term work on research materials for SVBR-100 project. The authors express special gratitude to Dr. A. E. Rusanov, Dr. A. D. Kashtanov, Dr. V. M. Troyanov who made an invaluable contribution to the organization of works and obtaining a large amount of new results.

REFERENCES

[1] FROGHERI, M., ALEMBERTI, A., MANSANI, L. The Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European Demonstrator (ALFRED) // The 15th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal - Hydraulics, NURETH-15, Pisa, Italy, May 12-17, 2013

[2] OECD NEA, Handbook on Lead-bismuth Eutectic Alloy and Lead Properties, Materials Compatibility, Therm al-hydraulics and Technologies. 2015 Edition. // OECD NEA. No. 7268

[3] AGEEV, V.S., TSELISHCHEV, A.V., SHKABURA, I.A., BUDANOV, YU.P., LEONTYEVA-SMIRNOVA, M.V., MITROFANOVA, N.M., IOLTUHOVSKIY, A.G. Structural Materials for Russian Fast Reactors Cores.

Status and Prospects // International Conference on Fast Reactors and Related Fuel Cycles – Challenges and Opportunities, Kyoto, Japan, December 711, 2009/ (https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/ meetings/PDFplus/2009/

cn176 /cn176_Presentations/ parallel_ session_4.2/ 04-09.Ageev.pdf)

[4] BESPALOV A.G., KONOBEEV YU.V., POROLLO S.I., RUDENKO V.A., KHABAROV V.S., SHULEPIN C.V.

Problems of radiation resistance of structural materials of reactors with lead -bismuth coolant.// Collection of reports of the conference "Heavy liquid metal coolants in nuclear technologies". In 2 volumes. - Obninsk: SSC RF - IPPE, 1999.-Volume 2. – 450 p.

[5] http://www.akmeengineering.com/svbr.html

[6] RYZHOV, S. B., ZUBCHENKO, A. S., STEPANOV, V. S., KLIMOV, N. N., RUSANOV, A. E., PEVCHIH, YU.

M., KARZOV, G. P., KASHTANOV, A. D., YAKOVLEV, V. A., STARCHENKO, E. G., NOSOV, S. I. Structural materials of the core elements of the primary circuit of the SVBR-100 reactor installation //VANT/ Series: "Nuclear power plant safety". Scientific and technical collection. Edition 24. Reactor installation SVBR. Podolsk, 2009. ISBN 978-5-94883-089-8 // http://www.gidropress.podolsk.ru/files/ vant/vant24.pdf

[7] GOST 25.506-85 Calculations and strength tests. Methods of mechanical testing of metals. Determination of fracture toughness (fracture toughness) characteristics under static loading.

[8] Rules for the design and safe operation of equipment and pipelines of nuclear power plants. , PNAE G -7-008-89.

Approved by the resolution of gosatomenergonadzor of the USSR from 26.04.1989, No. 5. Introduced on 1 January 1990 with Change No. 1 of 27 December 1999

STATUS OF HLMC TECHNOLOGY AND RELATED MATERIALS RESEARCH IN CHINA INSTITUTE OF ATOMIC ENERGY

B. LONG¹, B. QIN¹, X.G. FU¹, J.Q. ZHANG¹, Z.S. RUAN¹, H.R. MA¹, L.X.REN and Y.Y. QIAN¹

Z.H. WANG², J.Y. SHI², W.H. ZOU², H.J. CHANG²

1. China Institute of Atomic Energy, P.O.BOX, 275(34), 102413, Beijing, China 2. Nuclear Industrial Engineering Research and Design Co., Ltd., No. 58, Block B, Shunkang Road, Xilin River Economic Development Zone, Shunyi District, Beijing, China

Abstract

China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) is the earliest research institute to start the lead-bismuth eutectic technology studying in China. With the support of national projects, the accelerator driven system (ADS) was developed, a serials studies focus on the compatibility and irradiation properties of domestic structural materials in liquid lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) were performed.

Nowadays, the Lead or LBE cooled fast reactor is attracted more attention, more research on liquid metal technology and materials selection are carrying out to meet the requirements of reactor design.

This present paper will give brief information on the relevant research facilities and some experimental results obtained, such as thermal-hydraulic loop, LBE corrosion loops, oxygen control systems etc.

While some corrosion results of structural materials in LBE will also be discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION

With the development of economy, the demand for energy is increasing gradually. Nuclear fission energy is one of the important suppliers in China. To combat worsening greenhouse-gas emissions and pollution, China aims to raise its nuclear capacity to 200 gigawatts by 2030.

While, it is expected that the cumulated spent fuel generated by nuclear plants will reach to

~10,000 tons at that time. How to properly handle the spent fuel, especially the long-life and high-level radioactive waste, is a major issue for the sustainable development of nuclear power.

Accelerator-driven system (ADS) is proposed for high-level radioactive waste transmutation.

ADS use an accelerator to provide high-energy and high-current protons to bombard heavy liquid target to produce high-flux spallation neutrons as the external neutron source for the sub-critical reactors, transforming long-lived high-radionuclides into short-lived radionuclides or stable nuclides. Heavy liquid metals (HLM) such as lead (Pb) or lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) were proposed as target material and coolants for spallation target and sub-critical fast reactor, respectively, due to its good neutron and physical properties [1, 2].

The LBE is the main candidate materials for spallation target in ADS demonstrator because of its advantage on neutron properties: heavy elements with a low neutron capture cross-section induce a high neutron production. The LBE is also used as a coolant for ADS subcritical reactor and Gen IV fast reactors because it has good thermal properties, low melting temperature (~125 ºC) and high boiling point (~ 1670 ºC). But, LBE is known to be very corrosive to structural material at elevated temperatures. Oxygen control is a very important issue for the ADS system when LBE is used as the coolant or the target materials. It could affect the corrosion resistance of structural materials and the operation of the facilities.