CFD Modeling of Lead Solidification and Natural Convection in Support of the Westinghouse Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor Development

Lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) are part of the so-called Generation IV reactor technologies and use liquid lead as the primary coolant. While lead has several favorable attributes promoting economics, safety, and sustainability, its relatively high freezing point (327°C) requires coolant solidification to be included among the phenomena of interest in the development of the safety case and operational aspects for the nuclear plant. The assessment of current numerical modeling capabilities to predict coolant solidification and tracking of the solidification front propagation is thus essential to the development of LFRs.