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Development of Conceptual Lead Cartridge Design to Perform Irradiation Experiments in VTR

Seung Jun Kim, Keith Woloshun, Joshua Richard, Jack Galloway, Cetin Unal, Jeffrey Arndt, Michael Ickes, Paolo Ferroni, Richard Wright, Osman Anderoglu, Cemal Cakez, Khaled Talaat, Shuprio Ghosh, Brandon Bohannon

Nuclear Science and Engineering / Volume 196 / Number 1S / October 2022 / Pages S165-S182

Technical Paper / dx.doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2021.2011572

Received:July 15, 2021
Accepted:November 22, 2021
Published:October 11, 2022

This paper seeks to introduce the latest design of the Extended Length Test Assembly–Cartridge Lead (ELTA-CL) with associated thermal-hydraulic (TH) assessment and related experiment activities to support the critical component development performed by the ELTA-CL team (Los Alamos National Laboratory, Westinghouse Electric Company, and the University of New Mexico). The goal of the ELTA-CL program is to develop and validate an experimental capability to perform irradiation experiments in the Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) addressing Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) technology gaps, in support of the commercial development of advanced lead-cooled fast reactor concepts. Through a design maturation process and parametric study, a conceptual design is proposed to meet the requirements for material and corrosion testing. Thermal-hydraulic characteristics for the conceptual design at desired operating conditions are assessed with systems-level (one-dimensional) and computational fluid dynamics (three-dimensional) simulations. Along with the conceptual design work, experimental activities for the development of critical components such as the pump and flowmeter are undertaken. From both the modeling study and the experimental results, the design requirements of the Phase 1 ELTA-CL (e.g., 500°C and 2 m/s) are achievable with the current conceptual design. Additional design improvements and safety assessments at both steady-state and transient conditions for the final ELTA-CL design will be pursued.