The NPL Thermal Performance Team is contributing to a European project that will provide the nuclear industry with improved thermophysical properties data up to 2000 °C.

MetroFission: Metrology for new generation nuclear power plants

Coordinator: Lena Johansson, NPL

Recent projections indicate that by 2030, nuclear energy will continue to produce more than half of the electricity produced by non-fossil fuel-based technologies.

There are several proposed designs for Generation IV nuclear reactors. The main developments are in the type of fuel, and the fact that the fuel cycle is closed. This allows fuel recycling from the process and hence efficient use of natural resources, waste minimization and improved proliferation resistance. Generation IV reactor designs also include high-temperature reactors, which improve efficiency and economy. In these reactors the temperatures will be much higher (i.e. above 1000 °C) than conventional rectors posing several metrological problems. This project aims to address the issues surrounding materials selection for these reactors and characterizing the thermal properties of the materials required, for reactor design, and to enable efficient processing and manufacture of suitable components.

The project partners, LNE, PTB, JRC-ITU and NPL will address measurement techniques for the properties related to heat transfer, including specific heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, thermal expansion, and emissivity. Some of these properties can already be measured at high temperatures, but these measurements often lack traceability to the SI above 800 °C. Reference metrological setups and methods will be implemented or improved for measurements up to 2000 °C. In addition suitable candidate materials to serve as “transfer reference materials” for high temperature thermal properties will be identified and characterised.

For more information, please contact Lindsay Chapman.