It’s good to see the designers absorbed a dose of inspiration from the pioneering excursions in US sodium reactors.
Mechanical coolant pumps were the Achilles heel of the infamous Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) from 1957-64 at Santa Susana field laboratory. It had 50,000 lbs of liquid sodium in two coolant loops.
When 4 pints of tetralin leaked from a pump seal into molten sodium surrounding the SRE reactor core (500-950F), it fouled the fuel cladding with “brown stuff” and various fission products from the melted rods were found on both sides of the fence. [1]
A “small amount of sodium” in sealed heat pipes sounds pretty safe. But since Westinghouse filed all the eVinci’s NRC pre-application materials as “proprietary”, the actual design details aren’t available to the public for review.
“Disruption” I assume refers to hundreds of rule exemptions (licensing innovations) they filed as a non-LWR. Not judging, just stating the record. [2]
Mechanical coolant pumps were the Achilles heel of the infamous Sodium Reactor Experiment (SRE) from 1957-64 at Santa Susana field laboratory. It had 50,000 lbs of liquid sodium in two coolant loops.
When 4 pints of tetralin leaked from a pump seal into molten sodium surrounding the SRE reactor core (500-950F), it fouled the fuel cladding with “brown stuff” and various fission products from the melted rods were found on both sides of the fence. [1]
A “small amount of sodium” in sealed heat pipes sounds pretty safe. But since Westinghouse filed all the eVinci’s NRC pre-application materials as “proprietary”, the actual design details aren’t available to the public for review.
“Disruption” I assume refers to hundreds of rule exemptions (licensing innovations) they filed as a non-LWR. Not judging, just stating the record. [2]
1. https://www.etec.energy.gov/Library/Main/Doc._No._1_SRE_Fuel...
2. https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/licensing...