Oxygen Concentration Monitoring and Control in a Melted Lead Environment, Hardware concept and Implementation

Abstract

In this paper we study the cooling mode in the lead reactor type LFR - Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (ALFRED demonstrator that will be built in Romania). The choice of lead as a coolant adds to the safety in operation, given the high boiling temperature of lead (1745oC). However, under certain high temperature conditions, lead has a corrosive effect on structural materials. That is why it is very important to choose the structural materials for making the reactor components and it is also very important to control the purity of the lead by monitoring the dissolved oxygen concentration. Monitoring of dissolved oxygen in lead is an increasingly important field for ensuring the safe operation of Generation IV nuclear systems and therefore there is room for improvement in methods for assessing the concentration of dissolved oxygen in the coolant - molten lead.