LIQUID METAL FUEL TECHNOLOGY

The work carried out at a number of laboratories on the metallurgical problems associated with the development of liquid metal fuelled reactors is outlined. The major effort has been concerned with a circulating fuel thermal system which employs a fuel of uranium dissolved in bismuth and a thorium-bismuth slurry blanket. However, a considerable amount of work has been done on a fast reactor concept. The development of suitable fuels has called for extensive work on solutions and suspensions of uranium and plutonium and their compounds in liquid metals. This has included the determination of solubility/temperature curves, the identification of intermetallic compounds, the measurement of thermodynamic activities, and the study of particle growth in suspensions or slurries. (auth)