The international seminar "Material Behavior and Physical Chemistry in Liquid Metal Systems" was organized by the Institute of Materials and Solid State Research of the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center (Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany). The seminar was held at the Nuclear Engineering School of the center on March 24-26, 1981. The aim of the seminar was to give metallurgists, chemists,. and physicists working in different areas of the science and technology of liquid metals an opportunity to discuss the basic work and the need for further work in this field. Since the seminar was held near one of the laboratories which for the last few years has been engaged in liquid alkali metal studies, partic ipants also had an opportunity to observe modern equipment for liquid alkali metal research. Interest in the application of liquid metals as working fluids in energy production, conversion, and storage is increasing. The technology has already demonstrated its high standards, which make possible the operation of large sodium-cooled fast reactors. Past conferences have shown, however, that there is still a lack of basic knowledge and understanding. Therefore, the aim of the present seminar was to discuss basic work in detail, and most of the papers contributed to this objective.

Liquid metal technology has been the subject of an impetuous development in the recent decades, mainly due to the application of liquid met als in nuclear techniques. The technological development has been supported by studies of the basic physical-chemical properties of liquid metals: One major concern is the material behaviour in contact with the liquid metals, corrosion and the possible deterioration of metallic and ceramic materials which are in use as constructional or functional materials in such systems. Since the corrosion is in many cases not only a simple dissolution process, the chemical background of such processes had to be studied. Such studies included the determination of solubilities of metals and non-metals in liquid metals, the measurement of thermodynamic data of dissolved materials and of chemical equilibria. Several formerly unknown chemical compounds are formed in liquid metal~ lnd are only stable in this environment. The research and deve\opment devoted to the fission reactor techniques were more or less completed in several countries, further work is in progress in some countries in which the interest in fast breeder reactors arose recently. Even the worldwide program on fusion reactor technology is related to liquid metals, and severallaboratories are now contributing to this new technology.

The international seminar "Material Behavior and Physical Chemistry in Liquid Metal Systems" was organized by the Institute of Materials and Solid State Research of the Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Center (Karlsruhe, Federal Republic of Germany). The seminar was held at the Nuclear Engineering School of the center on March 24-26, 1981. The aim of the seminar was to give metallurgists, chemists,. and physicists working in different areas of the science and technology of liquid metals an opportunity to discuss the basic work and the need for further work in this field. Since the seminar was held near one of the laboratories which for the last few years has been engaged in liquid alkali metal studies, partic ipants also had an opportunity to observe modern equipment for liquid alkali metal research. Interest in the application of liquid metals as working fluids in energy production, conversion, and storage is increasing. The technology has already demonstrated its high standards, which make possible the operation of large sodium-cooled fast reactors. Past conferences have shown, however, that there is still a lack of basic knowledge and understanding. Therefore, the aim of the present seminar was to discuss basic work in detail, and most of the papers contributed to this objective.