W. David Swank

HIGH TEMPERATURE BEHAVIOR OF CANDIDATE VHTR HEAT EXCHANGER ALLOYS

Several nickel based solid solution alloys are under consideration for application in heat exchangers for very high temperature gas cooled reactors. The principal candidates being considered for this application by the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project are Inconel 617 and Haynes 230. While both of these alloys have an attractive combination of creep strength, fabricability, and oxidation resistance a good deal remains to be determined about their environmental resistance in the expected NGNP helium chemistry and their long term response to thermal aging. A series of experiments has been carried out in a He loop with controlled impurity chemistries within the range expected for the NGNP. The influence of oxygen partial pressure and carbon activity on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Alloys 617 and 230 has been characterized. A relatively simple phenomenological model of the environmental interaction for these alloys has been developed.Copyright

Hot Hydrogen Test Facility

The core in a nuclear thermal rocket will operate at high temperatures and in hydrogen. One of the important parameters in evaluating the performance of a nuclear thermal rocket is specific impulse, ISp. This quantity is proportional to the square root of the propellant’s absolute temperature and inversely proportional to square root of its molecular weight. Therefore, high temperature hydrogen is a favored propellant of nuclear thermal rocket designers. Previous work has shown that one of the life-limiting phenomena for thermal rocket nuclear cores is mass loss of fuel to flowing hydrogen at high temperatures. The hot hydrogen test facility located at the Idaho National Lab (INL) is designed to test suitability of different core materials in 2500°C hydrogen flowing at 1500 liters per minute. The facility is intended to test non-uranium containing materials and therefore is particularly suited for testing potential cladding and coating materials. In this first installment the facility is described. Automated Data acquisition, flow and temperature control, vessel compatibility with various core geometries and overall capabilities are discussed.

Thermal Conductivity of G-348 Isostatic Graphite

Abstract Fundamental measurements have been obtained to deduce the temperature dependence of thermal conductivity for fine-grain G-348 isostatic graphite, which has been used in thermal experiments related to gas-cooled nuclear reactors. Measurements of thermal diffusivity, mass, volume, and thermal expansion were converted to thermal conductivity. Resulting correlations for the thermal conductivity and thermal expansion are presented as functions of temperature from laboratory temperature to 1000°C.