Amorphous metallic alloy corrosion resistant surfaces for liquid cooled nuclear reactor parts

To achieve high thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency and enable cost competitiveness with conventional methods of electric power generation, the next generation of Nuclear Reactors systems is expected to operate at high temperatures. Molten fluoride salts are identified as a highly promising heat transfer fluid and thermal energy storage media capable of operating at high temperatures. The high working temperatures and corrosive properties of these salts represent aggressive environments for nuclear reactor components. In addition, molten fluoride salts are the cheapest salts used for these applications. These molten salts introduce a set of technological and engineering challenges because of their very corrosive characteristics for typical materials. In the proposed project, LM Group Holdings, Inc. propose to develop and apply bimetallic structure amorphous alloys with high corrosion resistance that will be able to withstand severe environment under molten fluoride salt conditions and improved surface characteristics for different parts of the nuclear reactor systems such as vessels, impeller, sealant etc. to be able to operate these systems at high temperatures. Amorphous metals are a novel class of materials that have a disordered, non-crystalline, glassy structure. Due to their unique microstructure, amorphous metals combine ultrahigh strength, high hardness and ductility in one single material. Amorphous Metals are more corrosion resistant compared to conventional metals due to the lack of long-range periodicity, related grain boundaries and crystal defects such as dislocations and their compositions. This proposed project will build on LMGH’s extensive prior experience with amorphous metals based bimetallic structures for different applications. It involves development, demonstration, and validation, of novel amorphous alloys based bimetallic structures manufactured via thermal spraying technology for nuclear reactor components. LMGH will conduct preliminary testing to prove the high corrosion resistance and mechanical integrity of novel materials. Three different amorphous alloys-based materials will be tested. The thermal sprayed bimetallic structures’ quality will be analyzed based on mechanical and corrosion properties. The bimetallic amorphous based structure solution developed under this program would enable rapid adoption and wide-scale commercialization of nuclear reactors which would effectively help the word transition from coal, oil and other fossil fuels to cleaner, more responsible renewable fuel. Additionally, the bimetallic amorphous based structures are being developed to protect the base metal against high-temperature and high-corrosion which allows us to identify and pursue applications in several industries (desalination, chemical, oil and gas, solar energy, power, aerospace and defense) that face similar operating challenges.