D2O Moderator/Coolant: Is Solidification Possible?

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Reza FMZ
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Hello all,

From those guys who worked with different materials especially reactor moderators and coolants, is it practicality possible to compress D2O between two metallic parts until it remains solid in room temperature?

In otherwords wants to have D2O in solid at room temperature.

Thanks in advance
 
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Reza FMZ said:
Hello all,

From those guys who worked with different materials especially reactor moderators and coolants, is it practicality possible to compress D2O between two metallic parts until it remains solid in room temperature?

In otherwords wants to have D2O in solid at room temperature.

Thanks in advance

The phase diagram for water indicates you can have room temperature ice above 1 GPa, I imagine it is around the same ballpark for heavy ice. For what reason are you asking in regards to nuclear engineering? I don't think it would be at all practical to confine a large volume at that pressure for a reactor but it might be possible for small samples e.g. neutron beam/scattering experiments.
 
QuantumPion said:
The phase diagram for water indicates you can have room temperature ice above 1 GPa, I imagine it is around the same ballpark for heavy ice. For what reason are you asking in regards to nuclear engineering? I don't think it would be at all practical to confine a large volume at that pressure for a reactor but it might be possible for small samples e.g. neutron beam/scattering experiments.

Hi QuantomPion,

Thank you for your reply. Indeed that would be inconvenient to be used for a reactor. The design is for a small collimated beam.
 
Reza FMZ said:
Hi QuantomPion,

Thank you for your reply. Indeed that would be inconvenient to be used for a reactor. The design is for a small collimated beam.

OK but why do you need D2O Ice? Why not some other solid deuterium compound?
 
QuantumPion said:
OK but why do you need D2O Ice? Why not some other solid deuterium compound?

The D2O will be used as the pre-moderator in our system, what other compounds do you have in mind?
Cheers.
 
Reza FMZ said:
The D2O will be used as the pre-moderator in our system, what other compounds do you have in mind?
Cheers.

How about zirconium deuteride? ZrD would have an extremely low absorbption cross section and fairly high density. Or some hydrocarbon compound like parrafin which might be easier to make.
 
QuantumPion said:
How about zirconium deuteride? ZrD would have an extremely low absorbption cross section and fairly high density. Or some hydrocarbon compound like parrafin which might be easier to make.

Thanks for your comments again. ZrD is one of the studied option in our design and that's for the low absorption cross section. Parrafin won't be feasible for or 14MeV neutrons, due to their cross section also the size of the moderator.