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Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
C. S. MacDougall, C. K. Bayne, R. B. Roberson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 58 | Number 1 | July 1982 | Pages 47-52
Technical Paper | Chemicl Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32956
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The design of vessels and off-gas systems for denitrating acidic radioactive process solutions by reacting nitric acid with sugar requires a fairly accurate determination of the rate of the controlling step. Therefore, the reaction of sugar with concentrated nitric acid was closely examined at temperatures of 100 and 110°C and in the presence of low levels of iron [0 to 0.2 M Fe(III)]. The sugar-acid reaction does not exhibit a single mechanism. However, the overall reaction can be approximated by the following expression:.The rate coefficient, K(t), as a function of time [K(t) = K0 + K1t] mathematically delineates the change from the rapid initial reaction at high acid concentrations to the slower digestion reaction at low acid concentrations. At the high acid concentrations (>6 M), the rate coefficient approaches K0. The relationship of the rate constant, K0, with Fe(III) at 100°C is K = 0.60 × [0−4 + 5.60 × 10−4[Fe(III)]. Efficiencies of the sugar destruction by nitric acid ranged from 2.56 to 2.93 mol of acid consumed per mole of carbon added. Product off-gases were examined throughout the reaction. Release of CO was fairly constant throughout the reaction, but amounts of CO2 increased as the nitric acid began to attack the terminal carboxylic acids produced from the consumption of sucrose. Voluminous quantities of NO2 were released at the beginning of the reaction, but larger relative concentrations of NO were observed toward the end.