Chapter 2 - Electromagnetic pump and LMFBR concept

Abstract

The idea of using interacting currents and magnetic fields to pump a conducting fluid was first conceived by Michael Faraday and later advanced and implemented by Jack Northrup. Much effort was placed into the fundamental development of electromagnetic pump technology in the mid-1950s, and practical implementations of the idea were rapidly developed for use in nuclear reactor cooling systems. This is, to date, still the application in which the technology is most widely deployed. Additional uses for electromagnetic (EM) pumps include the movement and control of seawater, molten metals, and various other conducting liquid metals employed in laboratory research [1]. An electromagnetic pump is a pump that moves liquid in the form of metal, in particular any electrically conductive liquid, using electromagnetism phenomena. By the law of physics of electromagnetics, a magnetic field can be defined as a set at right angles to the direction the liquid moves in, while a current is passing through it as well. This induce an electromagnetic force for the movements of the liquid. Applications of electromagnetic pump include pumping liquid metal through any cooling system that is installed inside of a liquid metal container in particular. EM sodium and NaK pumps have a long history of extensive technology and successful use as auxiliary system pumps and also as heat transport system pumps in some early research and small prototype liquid metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR) plants and for that matter in liquid metal fast reactor (LMFBR) such as versatile test reactor (VTR) in recent years. These pumps started in latter applications is around 6500g per minute (gpm) pump rate.