AIRCRAFT NUCLEAR PROPULSION PROJECT QUARTERLY PROGRESS REPORT FOR PERIOD ENDING JUNE 10, 1954
>Reactor Theory and Design. The main pump for the fuel system of the ARE was installed. The main sodium pump was also installed and the stand-by fuel and scdium pumps will be installed later. The fuel-to-helium and sodium-tohelium heat exchangers that had faulty welds were refabricated and reinstalled. The experimental reactor engineering program has included the development of components for in-pile loops, the design of forced-circulation corrosion-testing loops, and the construction of a unit for testing the mass-transfer characteristics of a sodium-berylliumInconel system. Further tests of bearing and shaft-seal materials were also made. Components of the proposed 60-Mw Circulating Fuel Reactor Experiment are being designed and constructed and are to be tested to determine operational characteristics. The intensive studies of the fluoride systems of interest as reactor fuels were continued with particular emphasis on systems in which the uranium-bearing component is the less corrosive UF/sub 3/ or a mixture of UF/sub 3/ and UF/sub 4/ rather than UF/sub 4/ alone. The static, seesaw and thermal-convection loop facilities were used extensively to further test the corrosion resistance of various materials in fluoride mixtures and in liquid metals. The effects of temperature and exposure time were investigated further, and additional confirmation of the relation of these variables to mass transfer in fluoride-Inconel systems was obtained. Reductions in depth of attack by UF/sub 4/bearing fluoride mixtures, in comparison with the attack on standard Inconel, were found in loop constructed of Hastelloy B and of a special Inconel with a portion of the chromium replaced by molybdenum. The metallurgical research effort wse devoted to studies of the mechanical properties of Inconel in contact with fluoride mixtures, to investigations of materials suitable for high-thermalconductivity fins, to searches for container materials other than Inconel for fluoride mixtures, and to development of fabricational techniques. High-temperature oxidation tests of several brazing alloys have shown that the majority of the nickel-chromium-base alloys are suitable for service in an oxidizing atmosphere at 1500 deg F. The enthalpies and heat capacities of ARE fuel NaF- ZrF/sub 4/- UF/sub 4/ and of K/sub 3/CrF/sub 6/ were determined. Density and viscosity measurements were made for molten RbF-LiF, and thermal conductivities were measured for molten RbF-LiF and solid NaF-KF-LiF. Electric conductivity measurements were made on molten NaOH. The radiation- damage program included additional irradiations in the MTR of fluoride mixtures in Inconel capsules, construction of inpile loops, and development of creep- testing equipment for use in the MTR. The analytical studies of reactor materials included the problems of separating UF/sub 3/ from UF/sub 4/ in NaZrF/ sub 5/-base fuels and fuel solvents, the formulation of a method for determining oxygen in these mixtures, stability tests of trivalent uranium in HCl solutions, and petrographic examination of ZrF/sub 4/-base fuels. (W.L.H.)
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-26
- NSA Number:
- NSA-14-023226
- OSTI ID:
- 4163607
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL-1729(Del.)
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Decl. with deletions Nov. 12, 1959. Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-60
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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