Organic liquids as reactor coolants. Status report from India

In India, the possibility of using organic liquids as reactor coolants is being investigated. Attempts have been directed towards measuring thermal and radiation decomposition of organic coolants, construction and operation of organic loops in order to measure changes in physical and thermal properties under dynamic conditions and also to study the corrosion of some reactor materials when they are in prolonged contact with organic material. For decomposition studies two mixtures of terphenyls, Santowax-R and Santowax-OM obtained from Monsanto, and ortho terphenyl and meta terphenyl from Eastman Kodak Co., USA, were used. The ortho- and meta terphenyls were purified by zone renning and their purity was checked by gas chromatography. A study of the gamma radiolysis of Santowax-R was carried out at several temperatures. Decomposition studies with reactor radiations ere carried out at an irradiation facility installed in the beam hole of Apsara reactor. Corrosion rate studies were determined for zircaloy-2 in Santowax-OM. As a preliminary to the in-pile organic loop in the CIRUS reactor an organic pilot loop was set up. Another organic loop for dynamic corrosion studies of fuel cladding materials has been completed