Despite the risk of nuclear pollution, many countries have built nuclear power stations because of the high efficiency of nuclear energy. The preservation of nuclear fuel is crucial in several key links of nuclear power plant operation. The fuel is useless after it is used up, but because it is so radioactive, releasing it at will is like dropping another form of "nuclear bomb" on an unsuspecting outside world, posing a threat for longer than half a hour. And helium helps to preserve nuclear fuel and it has a lot of advantages!

Bottled helium is used to hold the nuclear fuel.

Why do scientists use helium to preserve nuclear fuel? The reasons are as follows:

1. Helium preservation of nuclear fuel ensures the integrity of the fuel. Helium is an inert gas with high stability and is not reactive. The sealed steel cylinder is filled with helium to ensure the long-term integrity of the spent nuclear fuel sheath.

2. Helium preservation of nuclear fuel can avoid oxidation and corrosion. The sealing steel cylinder must be vacuum dried before filling helium to remove the water and air in the sealing steel cylinder, which can effectively prevent the deterioration of the fuel sheath material caused by oxidation and corrosion.

3. The sealing cylinder is filled with 99.9% or more high-purity helium gas to one atmospheric pressure. After double sealing welding, it can prevent the leakage of helium gas in the sealing cylinder and block the outside air from entering the sealing cylinder.

Helium Gas Further Reading:

Application of helium

Helium is widely used in military industry, scientific research, petrochemical, refrigeration, medical, semiconductor, pipeline leak detection, superconducting experiment, metal manufacturing, deep sea diving, high-precision welding, optoelectronic products production, etc.

1.  Low temperature cold source: using the low boiling point of -268.9℃ of liquid helium, liquid helium can be used for ultra-low temperature cooling. Ultra-low temperature cooling technology is widely used in superconducting technology and other fields. Superconducting materials need to show superconducting properties at low temperature (about 100K), and in most cases only liquid helium can easily achieve such extremely low temperature. Superconducting technology has great applications in maglev trains in the transportation industry and magnetic resonance imaging equipment in the medical field.

2. Balloon inflation: because the density of helium is much less than the air (the density of air is 1.29kg/m3, the density of helium is 0.1786kg/m3), and the chemical properties are extremely inert, safer than hydrogen (hydrogen can burn in the air, may cause an explosion), helium is often used in spacecraft or advertising balloons filled with gas.

3. Inspection and analysis: the superconducting magnet of NMR analyzer commonly used in instrument analysis needs to use liquid helium to cool down. Helium is often used as carrier gas in gas chromatography analysis. Helium is also used in vacuum leak detection, such as helium mass spectrometer leak detector.

4. Protective gas: the use of helium inert chemical properties, helium is often used in magnesium, zirconium, aluminum, titanium and other metal welding protective gas.

5. Other aspects: helium can be used as a high vacuum device, nuclear reactor in rockets, spacecraft as a pressurized gas to transport liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and other liquid propellants. Helium is also used as a cleaning agent for atomic reactors, as a gas mixture for breathing in Marine development, and as a filling gas for gas thermometers.

Zibo Dijia Special Gas Co., Ltd. can provide  99.99%-99.9999% high purity Helium He Gas

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