TESTRA Cluster - 'Heavy Liquid Metal Thermal Hydraulics, Materials Corrosion and Behaviour under Irradiation'

The TESTRA (Technological Support for Transmutation) Cluster is formed by four projects of the EURATOM Fifth Framework Programme (1998-2002) on Research and Training in Nuclear Energy. These are (i) Technologies, Materials and Thermal-hydraulics for Lead Alloys (TECLA), (ii) Spallation and Irradiation Effects (SPIRE), (iii) (Megawatt Pilot Experiment (MEGAPIE-TEST) and (iv) Assessment of Computational Fluid Dynamics Codes for Heavy Liquid Metals (ASCHLIM). The TECLA (3-year) and SPIRE (4-year) projects started in Autumn 2000 whereas MEGAPIE-TEST (3-year) and ASCHLIM (1-year) started in November 2001 and January 2002 respectively. The main objectives of the TESTRA cluster are: (i) characterisation of materials (steels) for use in an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) in terms of corrosion and irradiation resistance, (ii) thermal hydraulic investigations of Heavy Liquid Metals (HLM) such as lead and lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) in terms of development of measurement techniques, performance of benchmark experiments, (iii) assessment of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes, (iv) validation of ADS components to be used in LBE environment and (v) development and comprehensive testing of a HLM spallation target. The paper presents the major results achieved since the start of the four projects. (authors)