Research on Corrosion and Precipitation Behaviors in LBE Systems

Liquid metal, mainly lead and lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) has been widely applied in the advanced nuclear reactors and accelerator-driven transmutation (ADS) systems for a series of excellent physical and chemical properties, but LBE is very corrosive to the structural materials such as iron and stainless steel in medium and high temperature circumstance which limits its development seriously. Research works of anticorrosion for LBE has been carried out all over the world. In this paper, A kinetic model for corrosion and corrosion products precipitation in non-isothermal LBE circuits is developed to predict corrosion and precipitation behaviors, the mass transfer convection-diffusion equation is established and the corrosion/corrosion products precipitation rate along the circuit is predicted considering the effects of temperature profile of the entire circuit which are different from local parameters, the overall estimate of the corrosion/precipitation situation is obtained, at the end, the solid-phase oxygen control technique is discussed, a program developed for dissolution rate of the PbO particles in the mass exchanger is proposed.