Brasimone ENEA Research Centre

Competencies & Capabilities

Experimental Engineering Division

Department for Fusion and Nuclear Safety and Security

ENEA Research Centre, Brasimone, March 2016

ENEA
ENEA, the Italian Agency for New technology, Energy and
Environment, is a national research organisation whose
main business is the development of new technologies
on the above said topics.
Its two fundamental tasks are to conduct research in these
areas and to diffuse the results nationally.
The agency which has a staff of approximately 3000
employees, more than the half of them scientists is
present throughout Italy, operating 9 major research
centres and a number of smaller facilities.
ENEA has, among other ones, the objective of studying
solutions and technologies about nuclear innovative
plants In particular it was acquired large competence in
design capabilities and liquid metals technologies for
Fission and Fusion by involvement in several research
projects such as MEGAPIE, EUROTRANS, ELSY in Fission
and IFMIF &TBM in Fusion.
The participation to this project will allow to better focus
the scientific-technical knowledge of ENEA towards the
GEN IV reactors of ESNII initiative about which a large
effort was dedicated in the last years
 ENEA Brasimone
• Since around 30 years ENEA Brasimone is deeply involved in
activities of R&D focused on physics and technologies for Fusion
Reactors (ITER and DEMO)

• In this context, ENEA UTIS exploits its competence on:

• Controlled thermonuclear fusion technologies and
derivative industrial applications
• Innovative nuclear accelerators driven systems for
nuclear waste transmutation
• Thermal-hydraulics
• Thermo-mechanics
• Liquid metal technologies
• Remote handling
• metrology, metallography, mechanical controls and
tests
• radioprotection and environmental monitoring
• support to the National Antarctic Research Programme.

LEADING TH FUSION AND FISION FACILITIES @ ENEA CR BRASIMONE :

 EXPERIMENTAL ACTIVITIES
 DESIGN, MODELING & SIMULATION ACTIVITIES
Activities carried out at ENEA Brasimone

FSN-ING-PAN
Engineering Design
Thermo-Mechanical Analysis
 System design ..

 Ancillary system design

 Safety Analysis
 Component Design & Qualification
 Structural material characterization FSN-ING-TESP
 Numerical tools V&V Conceptual Design
Thermo-fluid Dynamic
 Experimental Support Facilities Operation
..
 Research Infrastructures
 Education & Training
 Strategies & Synergies
 …and much more!!
FSN-ING-QMN
Structural Material Assessment
Coolant chemistry
..

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Our research infrastructures….

…………for nuclear fission

CIRCE – ICE (Pool Integral Test, Pool Thermal Hydraulic)

NACIE (Fuel Bundle Investigation, HLM TH)

LIFUS5 (HLM-Water Interaction, SGTR Characterization)

LECOR (Corrosion test in Lead)

HELENA (HLM TH, Component Development, Chemistry Control System

optimization )

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CIRCE FACILITY

CIRCE Multipurpose Facility

Parameters Value
Outside Diameter 1200 mm
Wall Thickness 15 mm
Material AISI 316L
Max LBE Inventory 90000 kg
Electrical Heating 47 kW
Cooling Air Flow Rate 3 Nm3/s
Temperature Range 200 to 550 °C
Operating Pressure 15 kPa (gauge)
Design Pressure 450 kPa (gauge)
Argon Flow Rate 15 Nl/s
Argon Injection Pressure 600 kPa (gauge)

Electrical Power (Pin Bundle)  1 MW

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CIRCE FACILITY

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NACIE FACILITY
NACIE (Natural Circulation Experiment)
allows to perform experimental
campaigns with HLM in the fields of
• HLM Thermal-hydraulics;
• Fluid-dynamics;
•. Fuel Pin Bundle Investigation

Features
• Height: 8 m;
• Width: 1 m;
• Pipes O.D.: 2.5”;
• Material: Steel AISI 304;
• Working Fluid: LBE;
• HLM capacity: 1500 kg;
• Working Temperature: up to 500 °C.

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 LIFUS5 FACILITY
Discharge

LIFUS5/Mod2
THINS configuration 2012 V22

Gas / LBE 3'’ Discharge

¼’’
½’’
Manometro V21 V27
P
PC-S2V-02

TC-S3L-01

V9
V23
Argon Ar gas Argon Argon PC-S3V-01
[High P] Water [Low P] D1
Ar supply Discharge
V20

V16
V24 V26
PC-S4V-01
Discharge

V15
V6
PC-S1V-01 LC-S1V-01
PT-S1V-05 V13

TC-S4V-01 V1 Discharge

V25
PC-S2V-01

S3

S1 - Interaction vessel
TC-S2V-02

LBE
S4 – Storage tank
PT-S1V-03 PT-S1V-02
Level
SG-S1V-03 SG-S1V-02 Gauge
LBE Housing
TC-S1V-02 TC-S1V-01

 Reaction vessel S1
LT-S2V-01

S2 Pb – LBE 2'’
Water

 Pressurised water vessel S2

V7
TC-S2V-01
PC-AUX-01 V11
Compressor Vacuum pump PC-AUX-02
Air circuit

 Safety vessel S3
PT-S2V-06 Wa. 1/2’’
Drainage
PT-S2L-07 Drainage

V5
V19 V3 Wa. ½’’ Wa. 2’’

 Liquid metal storage tank

MT-S2L-01

V4 V14
TC-S2L-01
coriolis flow meter

 Experimental facility for HLM/water interaction investigations (i.e. PbLi, LBE, Pb)
 Designed to operate in a wide range of conditions: up to 200 bar and 500 °C
 Operated for supporting nuclear fission (i.e. LFR and HLM-ADS) and fusion technologies development
 Suitable for code validation, models development, safety analysis studies, testing engineering solutions, …
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LECOR FACILITY

MATERIALS

• Corrosion and structure protection

• Mechanical behaviour

HLM TECHNOLOGIES

• physical and chemical properties of HLM

• oxygen sensor and control

• handling of impurities, aerosols and slag

Maximum temperature in test section (˚C) 550

Maximum Lead flow rate (m3/h) 4

Inventory of Lead (m3) 0.6

Oxygen concentration 10-4/10-8 wt%

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HELENA FACILITY

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What we do…..on Nuclear Fusion

JET

Accelerator Target Test Cell

Deuteron accelerators: 10 MW beam heat removal Irrad. Volume ~ 0.5L
with high speed liquid Li flow.
40 MeV 250 mA (10 MW) for 1014 n/(s･cm2), (≥20 dpa/year)

Li flow Temperature: 250<T<1000℃

ITER HEBT
neutrons
Test
LEBT
D+ pieces
Two accelerators d-beams

n-irradiation

ECR Heat
(~1017 n/s)
source RFQ DTL exchanger
IFMIF PIE
ECR source: 155 mA, 95 keV Typical reactions: 7Li(d,2n)7Be,
6Li(d,n)7Be, 6Li(n,T)4He.

Two 175 MHz Accelerators: each 125 Footprint on target: 20cm wide x 5cm high (1 GW/m2)
mA and 40 MeV, acceleration by Radio EM pump
Frequency Quadrupoles (RFQ) and Drift Total Availability:
1270%
Tube Linacs (DTL)
Our research infrastructures….

…………for nuclear fusion

Facility Area
EBBTF (He-fus3 + IELLLO) Blanket/TBM for ITER/DEMO

TRIEX Blanket/TBM for ITER

Hydrogen Laboratory Blanket/TBM for ITER

CEF 1-2 PFCs for ITER

PFCs for ITER

DRP
Target for IFMIF

LiFUS 6 Target for IFMIF

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 IELLLO Experimental Facility
• The Integrated European Lead Lithium LOop
(IELLLO) is able to carry out:
 thermo-fluid dynamic tests on mock-
up of HCLL blanket modules up to
full scale, in ITER relevant conditions;
 characterization of instrumentations,
auxiliary circuits and components
relevant to lead lithium loops;
 LOCA simulations on HCLL TBM mock
ups.
• IELLLO can be also coupled with the
experimental helium facility HE-FUS3. The
integrated facility, named European Breeder
Blanket Test Facility (EBBTF), is unique in
terms of size and power, allowing to test the
operation of TBM mock-ups up to full scale,
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in ITER relevant conditions.
 HE-FUS3 Experimental Facility
HE-FUS3 facility is designed to study the cooling circuit of HCPB-HCLL TBMs in ITER. It is able to carry
out experiments up to scale 1:1.
• The loop is designed to operate at the following operative modes:
 long term isothermal cooling flow;
 slow thermal cycling flow;
 fast cold thermal shock flow;
 LOCA/LOFA simulation.

The main operative conditions of the facility are

shown in the following:

- Processed fluid: He
- Design Temperature: 530 °C
- Design Pressure: 8 MPa
- He mass flow-rate: 0,2 – 1,4 kg/s
- Electrical Power installed: 1 MW

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EBBTF Experimental Facility
• The EBBTF (European Breeder Blanket Test Facility) is an experimental facility composed by the
helium loop HE-FUS3 and the liquid metal loop IELLLO.
• IELLLO facility will be able to test small/medium/full scale HCLL TBM mock-ups in conjunction
with HE-FUS3 loop. This operation mode is called integrated, and the facility is named EBBTF.

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EBBTF Facility
TRIEX Facility
Investigation on Tritium Extraction Systems for HCLL blanket

TRIEX Operative Conditions

- Processed fluid: Pb-16Li
- Design Pressure: 0.5 MPa (g)
- Design Temperature: 530 °C
- Max mass flow rate: 1.0 kg/s
- Stripping gas: Ar, Ar+H2
- Pb-16Li inventory in the loop: 105 l
TRIEX loop
- Hydrogen partial pressure: 100-5000 Pa 17
 DRP facility
Perform experimental activities for the optimisation of remote handling (RH), in
support to ITER and IFMIF projects
DRP (Divertor Refurbishment Platform) is used for experimental activities in two different fields:
 Support to ITER Project: tests for developing and optimizing RH procedures for ITER divertor
mock-ups
 Support to IFMIF Project: tests for developing and optimizing RH procedures for the back-plate
bayonet concept

Removable Closing
back plate system
(bolts)

DRP: Control System

Trials on divertor assembly IFMIF back-plate bayonet concept

based on bolted closing system
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DRP facility
Assembly of Divetor

Mod. 3D RELAP5 of the divertor by

DIN University of Palermo
 LIFUS 6 Facility
Perform experimental activities on compatibility of structural materials and Li
purification technology in support of IFMIF project
LIFUS 6 loop is used for experimental activities on:
 corrosion tests on target structural materials in Li flowing at high velocity (15-20 m/s)
 tests on development and optimization of Li purification technology (impurity sensors, getter-
based purification traps)

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Our research infrastructures….

…………crosscutting

Mechanical Test Lab

Metallographic and Control Lab

Coolant chemistry Lab

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Mechanical Test Lab

Hydraulic Machine MTS 810 (500 kN)

Hydraulic Machine MTS 810 - 100 kN with void chamber

Hydraulic Machine (800 kN) with

cryogenic chamber

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Metallographic and Control Lab

Fluorescent Spectrometer X, Advant XP

– ARL - Thermo Optek
Scanning Electron Microscopy Philips XL 20

Ray X Diffractometer - Philips X Pert–Pro

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Coolant chemistry Lab
 New corrosion laboratory for the
qualification of materials in Pb/PbBi/PbLi
was created in ENEA Brasimone .
 The laboratory is equipped with large
capsule for the qualification of several
samples (5/6) in one device up to 550°C
with oxygen control
 N. 10 Large Capsule in order to qualified 60
samples
 N. 10 small capsule with 1 sample/capsule

LARGE CAPSULES (n°10)

SMALL CAPSULES (n°10,

MATTER project)

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Coolant chemistry Lab

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Coolant chemistry Lab

Pb, 480-550°C
CO= 10-9-10-8 % wt.

Pb, 480°C
CO= 10-6-10-7 % wt.

Pt-air sensors

Sensor calibration

Cu/Cu2O sensor, Pb 480°C

CO= 10-8 % wt.

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CONCLUSIONS

 ENEA has one of the most relevant EU R&D

infrastructures for HLM technological development, and
it is strongly involved in the main research programs
worldwide supporting the development of innovative
nuclear systems

 In these frames a large research program has been

implemented

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