Advanced Recycling Reactor Design Study

Author(s):  
Makoto Mito ◽  
Shigeru Kunishima ◽  
Kim O. Stein ◽  
Kazumi Ikeda ◽  
Horoyuki Sato

The Advanced Recycling Reactor (ARR) design study sponsored by DOE of USA has been conducted [1]. This paper presents the pre-conceptual design of the ARR that is a loop-typed sodium cooled reactor with MOX fuel. The International Nuclear Recycling Alliance (INRA) takes advantage of international experience and agreed to use Japan Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (JSFR) [2] as reference for Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) studies [1]. Since the scale-up factor of two is acceptable increase from manufacturing and licensing points of view, INRA proposes 3 evolutions of the ARR; ARR1, a 500 MWe demonstration plant, online in 2025; ARR2, a 1,000 MWe commercial plant, online in 2035; ARR3, a 1,500 MWe full-scale commercial plant, online in 2050. Japan has conducted R&Ds for the JSFR incorporating thirteen technology enhancements expected to improve safety, enhance economics, and increase reactor reliability. The ARR design is based on such the technology enhancements that it can benefit from this development effort and the ARR3 can become cost competitive with the similar sized LWRs. Major features of key technology enhancements are the following: Decay heat can be removed by natural circulation to improve safety. The primary cooling system consists of two-loop system and the integrated IHX/Pump to improve economics. The steam generator with the straight double-walled tube is used to improve reliability. The reactor core of the ARR1 is 70 cm high. The conversion ratio of fissile is set up less than 0.6 and the amount of burned TRU is 45–51 kg/TWeh. The ARR1 consists of a reactor building (including reactor auxiliary facilities and electrical / control systems), a turbine building, and a reprocessing building. The dimensions of the overall reactor building will be 46.1 m (W) × 72.8 m (L) × 70.3 m (H), and the volume of the building will be approximately 180,000 m3.

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masato Ono ◽  
Atsushi Shimizu ◽  
Makoto Kondo ◽  
Yosuke Shimazaki ◽  
Masanori Shinohara ◽  
...  

In the loss of core cooling test using High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR), the forced cooling of the reactor core is stopped without inserting control rods into the core and, furthermore, without cooling by the vessel cooling system (VCS) to verify safety evaluation codes to investigate the inherent safety of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) be secured by natural phenomena to make it possible to design a severe accident-free reactor. The VCS passively removes the retained residual heat and the decay heat from the core via the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) by natural convection and thermal radiation. In the test, the local temperature was supposed to exceed the limit from the viewpoint of long-term use at the uncovered water-cooling tube without thermal reflectors in the VCS, although the safety of reactor is kept. Through a cold test, which was carried out by non-nuclear heat input from helium gas circulators (HGCs) by stopping water flow in the VCS, the local higher temperature position was specified in the uncovered water-cooling tube of the VCS, although the temperature was sufficiently lower than the maximum allowable working temperature, and the natural circulation of water had an insufficient cooling effect on the temperature of the water-cooling tube below 1°C. Then, a new safe and secured procedure for the loss of core cooling test was established, which will be carried out soon after the restart of HTTR.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pengcheng Zhao ◽  
Kangli Shi ◽  
Shuzhou Li ◽  
Jingchao Feng ◽  
Hongli Chen

Small modular reactor (SMR) has drawn wide attention in the past decades, and Lead cooled fast reactor (LFR) is one of the most promising advanced reactors which are able to meet the safety economic goals of Gen-IV nuclear energy systems. A small modular natural circulation lead cooled fast reactor-100 MWth (SNRLFR-100) is being developed by University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). In the present work, a 3D CFD model, primary heat exchanger model, fuel pin model, and point kinetic model were established based on some reasonable simplifications and assumptions, the steady-state natural circulation characteristics of SNCLFR-100 primary cooling system were discussed and illustrated, and some reasonable suggestions were proposed for the reactor’s thermal-hydraulic and structural design. Moreover, in order to have a first evaluation of the system behavior in accident conditions, an unprotected loss of heat sink (ULOHS) transient simulation at beginning of the reactor cycle (BOC) has been analyzed and discussed based on the steady-state simulation results. The key temperatures of the reactor core are all under the safety limits at transient state; the reactor has excellent thermal-hydraulic performance.


Author(s):  
Yuchuan Guo ◽  
Guanbo Wang ◽  
Dazhi Qian ◽  
Heng Yu ◽  
Bo Hu

The case of flow blockage of a single fuel assembly in the JRR-3 20MW open-pool-type research reactor is investigated without taking into account the effect of the power regulation system. The coolant system and multi-channel reactor core are modeled in detail using thermal hydraulic system analysis code RELAP5/MOD3.4. MDNBR (Minimum Departure From Nucleate Boiling Ratio) and the maximum fuel central temperature are investigated to assess the integrity of fuels. The fuel plates in blocked assembly are not damaged until the blockage ratio exceeds 70%. In addition, the mitigative effect of the assumed 18 MW lower power emergency shutdown operation on the accident is also discussed qualitatively. Results indicate that although the assumed lower power emergency shutdown operation cannot avoid the most severe operating condition, it can obviously mitigate the consequences of the accident. The reactor eventually remains in the long-term safe state when natural circulation is established.


Author(s):  
Shoji Takada ◽  
Shunki Yanagi ◽  
Kazuhiko Iigaki ◽  
Masanori Shinohara ◽  
Daisuke Tochio ◽  
...  

HTTR is a helium gas cooled graphite-moderated HTGR with the rated power 30 MWt and the maximum reactor outlet coolant temperature 950°C. The vessel cooling system (VCS), which is composed of thermal reflector plates, cooling panel composed of fins connected between adjacent water cooling tubes, removes decay heat from reactor core by heat transfer of thermal radiation, conduction and natural convection in case of loss of forced cooling (LOFC). The metallic supports are embedded in the biological shielding concrete to support the fins of VCS. To verify the inherent safety features of HTGR, the LOFC test is planned by using HTTR with the VCS inactive from an initial reactor power of 9 MWt under the condition of LOFC while the reactor shut-down system disabled. In this test, the temperature distribution in the biological shielding concrete is prospected locally higher around the support because of thermal conduction in the support. A 2-dimensional symmetrical model was improved to simulate the heat transfer to the concrete through the VCS support in addition to the heat transfer thermal radiation and natural convection. The model simulated the water cooling tubes setting horizontally at the same pitch with actual configuration. The numerical results were verified in comparison with the measured data acquired from the test, in which the RPV was heated up to around 110 °C without nuclear heating with the VCS inactive, to show that the temperature is locally high but kept sufficiently low around the support in the concrete due to sufficient thermal conductivity to the cold temperature region.


Author(s):  
Charalampos Pappas ◽  
Andreas Ikonomopoulos ◽  
Athanasios Sfetsos ◽  
Spyros Andronopoulos ◽  
Melpomeni Varvayanni ◽  
...  

The present study discusses the source term derivation and dose result calculation for a hypothetical accident sequence in the Greek Research Reactor – 1 (GRR-1). A loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) has been selected as a credible accident sequence. The source term derivation has been based on the GRR-1 confinement performance where the inventory has been computed assuming continuous reactor operation. A core damage fraction of 30% has been considered for the calculations while conservative core release fractions have been employed. The radionuclides released from the reactor core to the confinement atmosphere have been subjected to natural decay, deposition on and resuspension from various internal surfaces before being led to the release pathway. It has been assumed that an emergency shutdown is initiated immediately after the beginning of the accident sequence and the emergency ventilation system is also activated. Subsequently, the source term has been derived comprising of noble gases, iodine and aerosol. The JRODOS computational software for off-site nuclear emergency management has been utilized to estimate the dose results from the LOCA-initiated source term that is released in its entirety from the reactor stack at ambient temperature. The Local Scale Model Chain in conjunction with the DIPCOT atmospheric dispersion model that is embedded in JRODOS have been used with proper parameterization of the calculation settings. Five weather scenarios have been selected as representative of typical meteorological conditions at the reactor site. The scenarios have been assessed with the use of the Weather Research and Forecast model. Total effective, skin, thyroid, lung and inhalation doses downwind of the reactor building and up to a distance of 10 km have been calculated for each weather scenario and are presented. The total effective gamma dose rate at a fixed distance from the reactor building has been assessed. The radiological consequences of the dose results are discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 986-987 ◽  
pp. 231-234
Author(s):  
Jun Teng Liu ◽  
Qi Cai ◽  
Xia Xin Cao

This paper regarded CNP1000 power plant system as the research object, which is the second-generation half Nuclear Reactor System in our country, and tried to set Westinghouse AP1000 passive residual heat removal system to the primary circuit of CNP1000. Then set up a simulation model based on RELAP5/MOD3.2 program to calculate and analyze the response and operating characteristic of passive residual heat removal system on assumption that Station Blackout occurs. The calculation has the following conclusions: natural circulation was quickly established after accident, which removes core residual heat effectively and keep the core safe. The residual heat can be quickly removed, and during this process the actual temperature was lower than saturation temperature in reactor core.


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-238
Author(s):  
Ali Sidi ◽  
Zaki Boudali ◽  
Rachid Salhi

The thermal-hydraulic study presented here relates to a channel of a nuclear reactor core. This channel is defined as being the space between two fuel plates where a coolant fluid flows. The flow velocity of this coolant should not generate vibrations in fuel plates. The aim of this study is to know the distribution of the temperature in the fuel plates, in the cladding and in the coolant fluid at the critical velocities of Miller, of Wambsganss, and of Cekirge and Ural. The velocity expressions given by these authors are function of the geometry of the fuel plate, the mechanical characteristics of the fuel plate?s material and the thermal characteristics of the coolant fluid. The thermal-hydraulic study is made under steady-state; the equation set-up of the thermal problem is made according to El Wakil and to Delhaye. Once the equation set-up is validated, the three critical velocities are calculated and then used in the calculations of the different temperature profiles. The average heat flux and the critical heat flux are evaluated for each critical velocity and their ratio reported. The recommended critical velocity to be used in nuclear channel calculations is that of Wambsganss. The mathematical model used is more precise and all the physical quantities, when using this critical velocity, stay in safe margins.


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