Experimental Studies on the Use of Liquid Lead in a Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor

A set of experimental studies is presented as a first approach to the problems that liquid-lead circuits might pose in the molten salt reactor design with cooling by direct contact between the salt and this liquid metal. Technologically it appears that the components of circuits developed for the use of liquid sodium in fast neutron breeder reactors (valves, electromagnetic pumps and flowmeters, pressure transducers, and cold traps) can be used in the presence of liquid lead, though with certain restrictions. Where corrosion is concerned, ferritic steels, although subject to mass transfer phenomena, are much more resistant than austenitic steels at the temperatures currently adopted in the molten salt reactor design. Finally, liquid lead could have a slight embrittling effect on ferritic steels, but this phenomenon needs to be checked more thoroughly.