Liquid Metals in Nuclear Power: An Engineer Looks Into the Past and Future

Resumo

A brief historical review of the use of liquid metals in nuclear power in the period 1950–2017 and the state of the problem today will make it possible to evaluate the prospects for their use in the first half of the 21st century (to 2050). There is hope that a discussion of these assessments will stimulate new approaches to the development of nuclear power. This presentation does not make predictions and concerns personal assessments by someone who has worked with liquid metals for more than 50 years. The present article is a revised variant of a preprint and report with the same title made at the interdepartmental seminar “Teplofizika-2007. Heat-and-Mass Transfer and Properties of Liquid Metals.”