Experimental Investigation on CIRCE-HERO for the EU DEMO PbLi/Water Heat Exchanger Development

The present paper describes the experimental campaign executed at ENEA Brasimone Research Centre aiming supporting development of a PbLi/water heat exchanger suitable for lithium–lead loops dual coolant lithium lead and water cooled breeding blankets EU DEMO fusion reactor. experiments were performed in test section named HERO, installed inside main vessel lead–bismuth eutectic-cooled pool-type facility CIRCE. hosts steam generator bayonet tube mock-up relevant scale, which was selected as promising configuration purposes. For thermal-hydraulic characterization component, five tests different pressures (6, 8, 12 MPa, two 10 MPa), liquid metal flow rates (40, 33, 27, 20, kg/s). outcomes proved technological feasibility this novel its suitability PbLi loops. activity completed with post-test analysis using versions system code RELAP5. Because eutectic, scaling is proposed to find equivalence PbLi. RELAP5 applied recalculate data working fluid.