Regeneration of oxygen sensor used in liquid lead-bismuth

Kurata, Yuji; Abe, Yuji*; Futakawa, Masatoshi  ; Oigawa, Hiroyuki 

Liquid lead-bismuth is a candidate material used for accelerator driven systems and fast reactors. Oxygen control in liquid lead-bismuth is essential in this system and oxygen sensors are the critical instruments for the active oxygen control system. In this study a regeneration treatment was investigated for the oxygen sensor which had become showed incorrect electromotive force between liquid lead-bismuth and a reference electrode due to some degradation. The Pt/air probe based on yttria-stabilized zirconia solid electrolyte was tested. It was shown that the oxygen sensor with incorrect outputs was be able to become a correct sensor indicating theoretical values above about 400C after a regeneration treatment.