Lead-Bismuth Activities at the Karlsruhe Lead Laboratory KALLA

Abstract

At Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK) the characteristics of an accelerator-driven subcritical system (ADS) are evaluated, mainly with respect to the potential of transmutation of minor actinides and long-lived fission products, to the feasibility and to safety aspects. All experimental activities, which are related to lead-bismuth as cooling fluid and spallation material, are performed in the KArlsruhe Lead LAboratory KALLA. This article gives an overview on KALLA, which has three stagnant experiments and three loop experiments. The stagnant experiments are concentrating on corrosion mechanisms, surface treatment, oxygen sensor development, and oxygen control system (OCS), the loop experiments are concentrating on thermalhydraulic measurement techniques, ADS-relevant component testing, and corrosion investigations in flowing lead-bismuth. A fourth loop experiment is planned to investigate the integral heat removal from a 4 MW spallation target for normal and decay heat removal conditions. Among others, latest results are presented of: characteristics of oxygen sensors in flowing liquid Pb-Bi, the oxygen control system (OCS) operating on a loop system, an ultrasonic flow meter applied to lead-bismuth at 400°C. In addition, results are given on the improvement of the corrosion resistivity of steels in flowing lead-bismuth, using a special temperature treatment method (electron beam facility GESA) and alloying aluminium in the surface layer.