Designing Mass Exchangers for Control of Oxygen Content in Pb-Bi (Pb) Coolants in Various Research Facilities

The solid-phase method designed by the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation - Institute for Physics and Power Engineering (SSC RF - IPPE) for the oxygen thermodynamic activity control [1, 2] implies the use of oxygen source, i.e. dissolvable lead oxide spheroids hold within limited section of the circuit (reaction vessel of mass exchanger) connected by the pipeline to the main circuit. PbO spheroids being in contact with flowing lead-bismuth (lead) are dissolved with generation of oxygen, which is transported throughout the circuit by the coolant flow. Technological implementation of solid phase control method is based on the use of specially designed mass exchangers (MX) being an important component of heavy liquid metal coolant technology.© 2009 ASME