| Accelerator Driven Sub-critical System (ADS) is considered to be one of the effective ways for nuclear waste transmutation. Liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) is the key material of spallation target in ADS and coolant of sub-critical reactor. Its compatibility to structural material, however, limits the application of LBE. Recent studies have demonstrated that with a certain amount of dissolved oxygen the LBE corrosion of structural material can be inhibited, provided that the oxygen concentration in liquid LBE can be precisely controlled. Therefore, the oxygen control technology in liquid LBE becomes one of the hot research topic. In this paper, we focus on the solid-phase oxygen control which is performed by the dissolution and precipitation of lead oxide (PbO) particles in liquid LBE. The precise measurement of oxygen concentration, the preparation of PbO and the design of mass exchanger are the key-factors to the solid oxygen control technology. Both the theoretical and experimental researches have been carried out in this paper. The experiment has been designed to test and calibrate the existing oxygen sensors. The results provide theoretical and experimental benchmark for independent development of PbO particles used in high temperature liquid LBE. Method of Microwave sintering PbO particles was studied, and the mechanical performance of PbO particles has been tested. The results show that the microwave sintering technology is superior to other traditional ways in preparing PbO particles, and it provides a high quality oxygen sources for oxygen control technology. A bypass mass exchanger used in solid oxygen control is designed, and it can be applied in the non-isothermal liquid LBE loop which is used for validating the solid oxygen control technology. Some related theoretical derivation and calculation of the thermal dissolution and diffusion has been carried out, providing theoretical basis for the realization of the solid oxygen control technology. |
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