Study of the physical and nuclear properties of liquid PbBiCd alloy coolant in nuclear fast reactor

A series of the lead-bismuth eutectic LBE alloys were prepared by adding different weight percentages of cadmium metal Cd (0, 10, 20, and 30 wt-%), to be used as a coolant in liquid metal fast reactor, LMFR. The physical properties; melting points, density, hardness, and wettability were measured for the prepared Alloys. Eight different gamma ray energy lines up to 1.4 MeV were used to determine the mass attenuation coefficients (σ, cm2/g) of gamma rays for the alloy's samples. Two types of neutron energies (total slow neutron and neutron with energy greater than 0.4 eV) were used to determine the macroscopic neutron cross-sections (Σ, cm−1) for the prepared alloys. The results show that, the addition of Cd metal to the LBE alloy lowers the melting points and improve their physical properties. It is also shown that the addition of Cd to LBE produce a wide range of near-eutectic compositions. In addition, the optimum Cd percentage for the values of Σ among all prepared alloys is the 20 wt-% Cd content that is why it is proposed the PbBiCd as a possible coolant in nuclear fast reactor. •Produced four types of PbBiCd alloys to be used as a coolant in liquid metal fast reactor.•Density, melting point, hardness, and wettability were measured for the prepared Alloys.•Two types of neutron and 8 energies of γ-rays were used to measure the attenuation properties of alloys.•The addition of Cd metal to the LBE alloy improved their physical properties.•The 20 wt% Cd content is the optimum Cd percentage for the values of Σ.