(566a) Tantalum Applications For Use In Scale Sulfur-Iodine Experiments

The development of the S-I cycle Integrated Lab Scale (ILS) loop has been performed as an international effort involving the US Labs and Industry and the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) of France. The S-I cycle consists of three reaction sections which are currently being developed by three different organizations. Sandia National Laboratory (SNL) is developing the high temperature sulfuric acid decomposition section, General Atomics (GA) is developing the HI decomposition (hydrogen generation) section, and the CEA is developing the primary Bunsen reaction section.

The construction of the ILS loop has posed several challenges stemming from the corrosive nature of the chemicals and the size limits for equipment involved with producing a laboratory scale demonstration which operates at prototypical pressures and temperatures. As such, tantalum has been identified as a material suitable for use in the ILS system. This paper will discuss machining a coating techniques and applications of tantalum for applications in small size sulfur-iodine experiments.