Thermohydraulics of Alkaline Liquid-Metal Coolant: A Retrospective-Perspective Look
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THERMOHYDRAULICS OF ALKALINE LIQUID-METAL COOLANT: A RETROSPECTIVE-PERSPECTIVE LOOK
A. P. Sorokin and Yu. A. Kuzina
UDC 536.24+621.039.553.34
Sixty years of experience in mastering alkaline liquid metals jointly with industry institutes, the Academy of Sciences, and engineering design agencies developing Nuclear Power Facilities (NPF) has culminated in the development of the scientific foundations for their use in nuclear power and the scientific substantiation of the hydraulic parameters and highly efficient technological processes ensuring successful operation of fundamentally new NPF. The primary directions of research were the hydrodynamics of and heat transfer in channels with complicated shapes and in nominal and deformed fuel-rod assemblies, including the blocking of flow sections, and the mechanisms of turbulent heat and mass transfer, interchannel mixing of the coolant, and the hydrodynamics of collector systems in reactors and heat-exchange equipment. Significant attention was devoted to heat exchange in intermediate heat-exchangers and steam generators of reactor facilities and the boiling and condensation of liquid metals. Questions concerning the generalization and experimental thermophysical databases, development of heat pipes, thermophysics of thermionic converters, high-temperature space NPF, and thermonuclear plants were examined. Future studies resulting from the need to improve the safety, cost-effectiveness, and reliability of developed nuclear power facilities are formulated.
In the fall of 1950, during a discussion of proposals made by A. I. Leipunskii, the Scientific and Technical Council of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Medium Machine Building recommended that Laboratory V (IPPE) should focus on the development of liquid-metal-cooled reactors. A department of heat-engineering was created at IPPE on May 24, 1954. Subsequently this department was converted into a thermophysical sector headed by V. I. Subbotin and subsequently by P. L. Kirillov and A. D. Efanov. The scientific thermophysical substantiation of the new type of NPP and NPF required the development of new techniques, special equipment, and experimental resources. The combination of hydrodynamic, liquid-metal, thermohydraulic and technological stands made their implementation possible and is currently prepared for experimental substantiation of innovative technical solutions for the designs of next-generation NPF [1]. The scientific foundation for their use in the nuclear energy industry was developed, the thermophysical parameters and highly efficient technological processes were substantiated scientifically, and the apparatus and systems making their successful operation possible were developed and implemented in practice [2]. The implementation of a strategy for two-component nuclear energy with fuel cycle closure using sodium-cooled fast reactors, assurance of its competitiveness, and preservation of its priority, which our country possesses in terms of NPP with sodium-cooled fast reactors, require continuation of
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