Emersion Testing of Phenix Reactor Components From Liquid Sodium
- Commissariat l'Energie Atomique, Cadarache - CEA/DEN/CAD/DER/STR, Building 201, 13108 St Paul lez Durance (France)
- CEA/DEN/Phenix, Bagnols-sur-Ceze (France)
The life extension of the Phenix LMFR involved the inspection of reactor vessel internal structures: among other techniques, a visual inspection was performed of the above core structure, fuel assembly heads and upper components. To make this inspection possible, a partial draining of the main vessel from primary liquid sodium was carried out (sodium at 180 and argon cover at 150 ). The test program aimed at obtaining further knowledge on the process of wetting of sodium - as pure metal - on Phenix Plant assembly heads - made of stainless steel -, as well as on the internal structure welding, was carried out from November 1998 to January 1999. The main results were as follows: - the sodium meniscus measured during sodium lowering against the non-wet vertical structures reaches 10 mm in height. On wetted structures, it reaches only 5.3 mm. - when sodium level decreases, the process if very regular. However, re-flooding is carried out in stages. - a difference of 0.2 mm between two heads altitudes is enough to observe successively each of the heads. - the quality of sodium does not modify the wetting process (in the range of cold trap temperature: 110-140 deg. C). - the influence of lighting is important. - the visibility limit of emerging electro-eroded cracks (from 0.17 to 1.0 mm) is at 0.20 mm. - the visibility of a horizontal welding, machined or not, is good when the lighting is sufficient. - the superficial flow of sodium only modifies the wetting process for the closest heads. A final test allowed to observe that the global inclination of the assembly head mock-up does not modify the wetting process. These experimental results were part of the feasibility demonstration of the visual inspection within the actual Phenix Plant that was undertaken in 2001. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- The ASME Foundation, Inc., Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21062319
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICONE 10: 10. international conference on nuclear engineering, Arlington - Virginia (United States), 14-18 Apr 2002; Other Information: Country of input: France
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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