Lithium Circuit Test Section Design and Fabrication

Journal Article · Fri Jan 20 04:00:00 EST 2006 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2169218· OSTI ID:20797994

Godfroy, Thomas; Garber, Anne; Martin, James ^[1]

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1. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Nuclear Systems Engineering Analysis, Huntsville, Alabama 35812 (United States)

The Early Flight Fission -- Test Facilities (EFF-TF) team has designed and built an actively pumped lithium flow circuit. Modifications were made to a circuit originally designed for NaK to enable the use of lithium that included application specific instrumentation and hardware. Component scale freeze/thaw tests were conducted to both gain experience with handling and behavior of lithium in solid and liquid form and to supply anchor data for a Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP) model that was modified to include the physics for freeze/thaw transitions. Void formation was investigated. The basic circuit components include: reactor segment, lithium to gas heat exchanger, electromagnetic (EM) liquid metal pump, load/drain reservoir, expansion reservoir, instrumentation, and trace heaters. This paper discusses the overall system design and build and the component testing findings.

• OSTI ID: 20797994
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 813; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
DESIGN
FABRICATION
FISSION
GAIN
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HEATERS
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
LIQUID METALS
LITHIUM
POTASSIUM ALLOYS
POWER GENERATION
PROPULSION
REACTOR MATERIALS
SODIUM ALLOYS
SPACE VEHICLES
TEST FACILITIES
TESTING