Lithium-lead/water interaction. Large break experiments

Abstract

One current concept in fusion blanket module design is to utilize water as coolant and liquid lithium-lead as breeding/neutron-multiplier material. Considering the possibility of certain off-normal events, it is possible that water leakage into the liquid metal may occur due to a tube rupture. The lithium-lead/water contact can lead to a thermal and chemical reaction which should provoke an intolerable pressure increase in the blanket module. For realistic simulation of such in-blanket events, the BLAnket Safety Test (BLAST) facility has been built. It simulates the transient event by injecting subcooled water under high pressure into a stagnant pool of about 500 kg liquid Pb17Li. Eight fully instrumented large break tests were carried out under different conditions. The aim of the experiments is to study the chemical and thermal processes and particularly: the pressurization history of the reaction vessel, the formation and deposition of the reaction products, the identification and propagation of the reaction zones and the temperature transient in the liquid metal. In this paper the results of all tests performed are presented and discussed.