Design of the Gas Sampling and Analyzing System of HTR-PM

Author(s):  
Jiang Zhu ◽  
Feng Xie

The high temperature gas-cooled reactor pebbled-bed module (HTR-PM) which is a modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration power plant, is characterized by inherent safety features and high generating efficiency. It adopts numerous graphite for structural materials in the reactor core, helium as primary coolant, and tristructural isotropic (TRISO) coated particles embedded in the graphite matrix as fuel elements. However, at high temperature the impurities in the helium can react with the graphite to cause corrosion of structural materials. Therefore, it is very necessary to monitor and control the composition and content of gaseous impurities in the primary coolant. In HTR-PM, the gas sampling and analyzing system has been designed to sample the primary helium at different positions in the helium purification system which is used to reduce the quantity of chemical impurities and remove the radioactive dust and gaseous fission products in the primary loop, and monitor the gas composition and individual concentration online. In the current paper, the composition of the gaseous impurities which need to be monitored in the primary loop of HTR-PM is presented, the design of the gas sampling positions in the helium purification system is discussed, and the main gas analyzing instruments are introduced.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengqi Lou ◽  
Liguo Zhang ◽  
Feng Xie ◽  
Jianzhu Cao ◽  
Jiejuan Tong ◽  
...  

After the successful construction and operation experience of the 10 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10), a high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed modular (HTR-PM) demonstration plant is under construction in Shidao Bay, Rongcheng City, Shandong province, China. An online gross γ monitoring instrument has been designed and placed at the exit of the helium purification system (HPS) of HTR-PM and is used to detect the activity concentration in the primary circuit after purification. The source terms in the primary loop of HTR-PM and the helium purification process were described. The detailed configuration of the gross γ monitoring instrument was presented in detail. The Monte Carlo method was used to simulate the detection efficiency of the monitoring system. Since the actual source terms in the primary loop of HTR-PM may be different than the current design values, a sensitivity analysis of the detection efficiency was implemented based on different relative proportions of the nuclides. The accuracy and resolution of the NaI(Tl) detector were discussed as well.


Author(s):  
Yujie Dong ◽  
Fubing Chen ◽  
Zuoyi Zhang ◽  
Shouyin Hu ◽  
Lei Shi ◽  
...  

Safety demonstration tests on the 10 MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor-Test Module (HTR-10) were conducted to verify the inherent safety characteristics of modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) as well as to obtain the reactor core and primary cooling system transient data for validation of HTGR safety analysis models and codes. As one of these safety demonstration tests, a simulated anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) test called loss of forced cooling by tripping the helium circulator without reactor scram was carried out at 100% rated power level in July, 2005. This paper simulates the reactor transient behaviour during the test by using the THERMIX code system. The reactor power transition and a comparison with the test result are presented. Owing to the negative temperature coefficient of reactivity, the reactor undergoes a self-shutdown after the stop of the helium circulator and keeps subcritical till the end of the test. Due to the loss of forced cooling, the residual heat is slowly transferred from the core to the Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) by conduction, radiation and natural convection. The thermal response of this heat removal process is investigated. The calculated and test temperature transients of the measuring points in the reactor internals are given and the differences are preliminarily discussed. With respect to the safety features of the HTR-10, it is of most importance that the maximum fuel center temperature is always lower than 1230 °C which is the limited value at the first phase of the HTR-10 project. The simulation and test results show that the HTR-10 has the built-in passive safety features, and the THERMIX code system is applicable and reasonable for simulating and analyzing the helium circulator trip ATWS test.


Author(s):  
Yanhua Zheng ◽  
Lei Shi

Reactivity accident due to inadvertent withdrawal of the control rod is one kind of the design basis accident for high temperature gas-cooled reactors, which should be analyzed carefully in order to validate the reactor inherent safety properties. Based on the preliminary design of the Chinese Pebble-bed Modular High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTR-PM) with single module power of 250MW, several cases of reactivity accident has been studied by the help of the software TINTE in the paper, e.g., the first scram signal works or not, the absorber balls (secondary shutdown units) drop or not, and the ATWS situation is also taken into account. The dynamic processes of the important parameters including reactor power, fuel temperature and Xenon concentration are studied and compared in detail between these different cases. The calculating results show that, the decay heat during the reactivity accidents can be removed from the reactor core solely by means of physical processes in a passive way, so that the temperature limits of fuel element and other components are still obeyed, which can effectively keep the integrality of the fuel particles to avoid massive fission products release. This will be helpful to the further detail design of the HTR-PM demonstrating power plant project.


Author(s):  
Yanhua Zheng ◽  
Fubing Chen ◽  
Lei Shi

Pebble bed modular high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTR), due to their characteristics of low power density, slender structure, large thermal inertia of fuel elements and reactor component materials (graphite), have good inherent safety features. However, the reflectors consisting of large piles of graphite blocks will form huge numbers of certain bypass gaps in the radial, axial and circumferential directions, thus affecting the effective cooling flow into the reactor core, which is one of the concerned issues of HTRs. According to the preliminary design of the Chinese high temperature gas-cooled reactor pebble-bed modular (HTR-PM), the thermal-hydraulic calculation model is established in this paper. Based on this model, considering different bypass flow, that is to say, different core cooling flow, fuel element temperature, outlet helium temperature and the core pressure drop in the normal operation, as well as the maximal fuel temperature during the depressurized loss of forced cooling (DLOFC) accident are analyzed. This study on bypass effects on the steady-state and transient phases can further demonstrate the HTR safety features.


Author(s):  
Minggang Lang ◽  
Ximing Sun ◽  
Yanhua Zheng

In thermal hydraulics designing and safety analysis of the High Temperature gas-cooled Reactor-Pebble Bed (HTR-PM), the THERMIX code was used to study the behavior of helium in the primary coolant system. Once the helium leaks out of the primary loop through a break on the pressure boundary or an inadvertent open relief valve, it is difficult to simulate the conditions of the room where the release occurred with THERMIX. In this paper, the latest version of RELAP5/MOD4 was used to simulate the behavior of the helium released to the containment rooms. A RELAP5/MOD4 input deck of the HTR-PM, consisting of the core, the primary coolant system, the secondary loop and the containment, was developed and evaluated in this paper. Based on the model, this paper simulated the accidents consequences of large breaks or small breaks near the inlet or the outlet of the helium circulator located inside the steam generator pressure vessel. The calculating results illustrate that the temperature of the helium flowing into the reactor building through the break was no more than 280°C even after an un-isolating large break. The analysis shows that the systems function to scram the reactor and to monitor the core temperature and pressure after accidents would not be affected by breaks.


Author(s):  
Zheng Yanhua ◽  
Shi Lei

Reactivity accident due to inadvertent withdrawal of the control rod is one kind of the design basis accident for high temperature gas-cooled reactors, which should be analyzed carefully in order to validate the reactor inherent safety properties. Based on the preliminary design of the Chinese pebble-bed modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-PM) with single module power of 250 MW, several cases of reactivity accident has been studied by the help of the software TINTE in the paper (e.g., the first scram signal works or not, the absorber balls (secondary shutdown units) drop or not) and the ATWS situation is also taken into account. The dynamic processes of the important parameters including reactor power, fuel temperature, and xenon concentration are studied and compared in detail between these different cases. The calculating results show that the decay heat during the reactivity accidents can be removed from the reactor core solely by means of physical processes in a passive way so that the temperature limits of the fuel element and other components are still obeyed, which can effectively keep the integrality of the fuel particles to avoid massive fission products release. This will be helpful to the further detail design of the HTR-PM demonstrating power plant project.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Julwan Hendry Purba, ST., M.App.IT. ◽  
Arya Adhyaksa Waskita ◽  
Damianus Toersiwi Sony Tjahyani

High temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) has been considered to be the most promising option to meet energy demands in the future. It has also been selected as the next generation nuclear plant. The primary safety requirement of the next generation nuclear plant design is to limit radioactive material releases to practically eliminate the need for public evacuation or sheltering beyond the exclusion area boundary. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety design of HTGRs in order to fulfill the requirement of the next generation nuclear plant. To achieve this objective, inherent safety features, fundamental safety functions, and confinement functions realized into the design of HTGRs are comprehensively evaluated. It is found that design provisions of HTGRs can fulfill the intention of keeping radionuclides at their original sources. The layers of the coated fuel particles are very robust to retain nuclear fission products for all foreseeable reactivity events. There will be no possibility of radioactive materials to be released even though related safety systems and operator intervention are not involved in the recovery actions. This design has complied with the requirement of the next generation nuclear plant, which is to practically eliminate the need for public evacuation or sheltering beyond the exclusion area boundary.Keywords: High temperature gas cooled reactor, inherent safety features, fundamental safety functions, confinement functions, next generation nuclear plant


Radiocarbon ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (03) ◽  
pp. 867-884 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Xie ◽  
W Peng ◽  
J Cao ◽  
X Feng ◽  
L Wei ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe very high temperature reactor (VHTR) is a development of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) and one of the six proposed Generation IV reactor concept candidates. The 10 MW high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10) is the first pebble-bed gas-cooled test reactor in China. A sampling system for the measurement of carbon-14 (14C) was established in the helium purification system of the HTR-10 primary loop, which could sample 14C from the coolant at three locations. The results showed that activity concentration of 14C in the HTR-10 primary coolant was 1.2(1) × 102 Bq/m3 (STP). The production mechanisms, distribution characteristics, reduction routes, and release types of 14C in HTR-10 were analyzed and discussed. A theoretical model was built to calculate the amount of 14C in the core of HTR-10 and its concentration in the primary coolant. The activation reaction of 13C has been identified to be the dominant 14C source in the core, whereas in the primary coolant, it is the activation of 14N. These results can supplement important information for the source term analysis of 14C in HTR-10 and promote the study of 14C in HTGRs.


Author(s):  
R. G. Adams ◽  
F. H. Boenig

The Gas Turbine HTGR, or “Direct Cycle” High-Temperature Gas-Cooled, Reactor power plant, uses a closed-cycle gas turbine directly in the primary coolant circuit of a helium-cooled high-temperature nuclear reactor. Previous papers have described configuration studies leading to the selection of reactor and power conversion loop layout, and the considerations affecting the design of the components of the power conversion loop. This paper discusses briefly the effects of the helium working fluid and the reactor cooling loop environment on the design requirements of the direct-cycle turbomachinery and describes the mechanical arrangement of a typical turbomachine for this application. The aerodynamic design is outlined, and the mechanical design is described in some detail, with particular emphasis on the bearings and seals for the turbomachine.


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