Liquid metal testing facility could boost fast reactors

The project, in which the EPSRC is funding the UK’s involvement, is expected to push the boundaries of knowledge of the behaviour of liquid metals.

Liquid metal cooled reactors have been investigated for marine propulsion, but not for power generation, and have not been produced commercially.

Their advantages are the excellent heat transfer properties of liquid metals, which allows the reactor core to be more compact. Liquid metals can be heated to temperatures of hundreds of degrees centigrade without the need for pressurisation as in a water reactor, which makes them safer to operate. The higher operating temperature boosts the overall thermodynamic efficiency of the plant.

Dr Andrea Cioncolini, associate professor of thermal hydraulics in the university’s Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering department, said liquid metal cooled reactors would be smaller and simpler to make, so that numerous small reactors could be built instead of large bespoke units. Small modular reactors could have long-life prefabricated cores that could run for several years before being replaced.