The project
Next-generation nuclear energy, built in Romania
ALFRED (Advanced Lead Fast Reactor European Demonstrator) is the European demonstrator of lead-cooled fast reactor technology, to be built at Mioveni by RATEN ICN Pitești, as part of the European Sustainable Nuclear Industrial Initiative. Its first stage is an experimental infrastructure of dedicated facilities for testing components, materials and instrumentation in liquid lead.
Vision is an industrial partner of RATEN ICN in the research project “Research activities and experimental infrastructure for demonstrating lead-cooled fast reactor technology – 4ALFRED”, in the technology transfer activity dedicated to reactor components developed by SME partners.
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Our research tasks
Measuring oxygen in molten lead
Controlling the oxygen content of the lead coolant is essential for the integrity of a lead-cooled reactor. Vision's tasks focus on the sensor and the electronics that make this measurement reliable at high temperature.
Task 1
Oxygen sensor technologies
Experimental comparison of oxygen sensor technologies – platinum-air and metal/metal-oxide reference electrodes – for monitoring molten-metal coolants at high temperature.
Task 2
Measurement electronics
Electronic modules for the precise measurement of the oxidation degree of molten metals, designed to be integrated into data acquisition systems.
What we do
Our engineering work streams
Acquisition electronics
A signal conditioning and acquisition module for the sensor – buffering, offset generation, filtering, amplification and analogue/digital conversion – with microcontroller firmware and successive PCB revisions driven by laboratory testing.
Sensor housing & mechanics
The external component of the transducer: selection of the permeable ceramic tube, housing geometry and tolerance analysis, sealing and industrial coupling, validated through mechanical and leak tests.
Simulation & modelling
A mathematical model of the electrochemical processes in the sensor, transposed into simulation and recalibrated against experimental results, including worst-case analysis of component tolerances and ageing.
Test bench & procedures
A reproducible test bench with step-by-step procedures, pass/fail criteria and test sheets per unit – covering endurance, power consumption, high ambient temperature and repeated connection cycles.
Data platform
Software for the measurement data: database and aggregation queries, structured logging, automated regression tests and visualisation checked against the values recorded by the acquisition module.
Iterative validation
Findings are ranked by their impact on measurement accuracy and traced to successive revisions of the design and technical documentation – from first prototype to the next version.
Why it matters
Research that strengthens our hardware expertise
ALFRED brings together the competences we build every day: IoT ecosystems, industrial sensors, communication modules and a prototyping lab. The know-how gained in high-temperature instrumentation goes back into Vision Smart Platform and into our IoT and smart hardware solutions.
- Industrial sensing in demanding environments
- Electronics design, PCB revisions and firmware
- Test automation and measurement data platforms
