Manufacturing of PAV-ONE, a Permeator against Vacuum Mock-Up with Niobium Membrane

Francesca Papa, Alessandro Venturini (), Gianfranco Caruso, Serena Bassini, Chiara Ciantelli, Angela Fiore, Vincenzo Cuzzola, Antonio Denti and Marco Utili
Additional contact information
Francesca Papa: DIAEE Department, Sapienza University of Rome, 00186 Rome, Italy
Alessandro Venturini: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Brasimone Research Centre, Camugnano, 40032 Bologna, Italy
Gianfranco Caruso: DIAEE Department, Sapienza University of Rome, 00186 Rome, Italy
Serena Bassini: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Brasimone Research Centre, Camugnano, 40032 Bologna, Italy
Chiara Ciantelli: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Brasimone Research Centre, Camugnano, 40032 Bologna, Italy
Angela Fiore: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Brasimone Research Centre, Camugnano, 40032 Bologna, Italy
Vincenzo Cuzzola: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Brasimone Research Centre, Camugnano, 40032 Bologna, Italy
Antonio Denti: RINA Consulting—CSM S.p.A., 00128 Rome, Italy
Marco Utili: ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Fusion and Technology for Nuclear Safety and Security Department, Brasimone Research Centre, Camugnano, 40032 Bologna, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 14, 1-12

Abstract: The Permeator Against Vacuum (PAV) is one of the proposed technologies for the Tritium Extraction System of the WCLL BB (Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead Breeding Blanket) of the EU DEMO reactor. In this paper, the manufacturing of the first PAV mock-up with a niobium membrane with a cylindrical configuration is presented. This work aimed to demonstrate the possibility of manufacturing a relevant-size PAV to be later tested in the TRIEX-II facility. The adopted prototypical solutions are described in detail, starting with the methodology developed to join the Nb tubes with a 10CrMo9-10 (A182 F22) plate. Dedicated manufacturing and welding procedures, based on vacuum brazing with a nickel-based brazing alloy, were developed to solve the problem. This new kind of brazing was first analyzed to check the morphology of the joint and then tested to check its capability to withstand the TRIEX-II operative conditions. In parallel, the compatibility with a lithium-lead environment was analyzed by exposing samples of niobium and 10CrMo9-10 (A335 P22) to a flow of the eutectic alloy at 500 °C up to 4000 h. Finally, the PAV mock-up was installed in the TRIEX-II facility.

Keywords: Permeator Against Vacuum; tritium extraction; niobium membrane (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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