Development of high temperature LBE corrosion test loop "OLLOCHI"

Saito, Shigeru   ; Wan, T.*; Okubo, Nariaki   ; Kita, Satoshi*; Obayashi, Hironari  ; Sasa, Toshinobu   

Lead-bismuth eutectic alloy (LBE) is a major candidate for a spallation target material and core coolant of an accelerator driven system (ADS) which has been developed in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to transmute high-level radioactive wastes. A proton irradiation facility to build a material irradiation database for future ADS development is under considering in the J-PARC. To realize both the ADS and the above-mentioned facility, there are many issues on operational safety of LBE to be solved. Especially, corrosion data for the major materials such as T91 (Modified 9Cr-1Mo steel) and SS316L at the temperature range between 400 and 550 C under the conditions of flowing LBE with a controlled oxygen are not sufficient to design the ADS and the facility. JAEA developed a new large-scale corrosion test loop named "OLLOCHI (Oxygen-controlled LBE LOop for Corrosion tests in HIgh-temperature)" aiming to perform the compatibility tests between the LBE and the steels, as well as to develop the LBE operation technology. OLLOCHI has a function to automatically control the oxygen concentration in LBE. The maximum temperature at the regions of high-temperature and low-temperature of the OLLOCHI are 550 C and 450 C respectively to cover the ADS designed condition. As a result of 2,000 hours operation, it was demonstrated that the OLLOCHI showed the designed performance. In this report, outline of the OLLOCHI, details of the components, results of characteristic tests, and the future experimental plan are described.