Passive Reactor Cooling Using Capillary Porous Wick
- Applied Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, North Atherton Street, State College, PA 16804-0030 (United States)
- Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
Long-term reliability of actively pumped cooling systems is a concern in space-based nuclear reactors. Capillary-driven passive cooling systems are being considered as an alternative to gravity-driven systems. The high surface tension of liquid lithium makes it attractive as the coolant in a capillary-driven cooling system. A system has been conceived in which the fuel rod of a reactor is surrounded by a concentric wick through which liquid lithium flows to provide cooling under normal and emergency operating conditions. Unheated wicking experiments at three pressures using four layered screen mesh wicks of different porosities and three relatively high surface tension fluids have been conducted to gain insight into capillary phenomena for such a capillary cooling system. All fluids tested demonstrated wicking ability in each of the wick structures for all pressures, and wicking ability for each fluid increased with decreasing wick pore size. An externally heated wicking experiment with liquid lithium as the wicking fluid was also conducted. In addition to wicking experiments, a heater rod is under development to simulate the fuel rod of a space based nuclear reactor by providing a heat flux of up to 110 kW/m{sup 2}. Testing of this heater rod has shown its ability to undergo repeated cycling from below 533 K to over 1255 K without failure. This heater rod will be integrated into lithium wicking experiments to provide more realistic simulation of the proposed capillary-driven space nuclear reactor cooling system. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21021063
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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