Air Ingress Analyses on a High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor
A primary-pipe break accident is one of the design-basis accidents of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). When this accident occurs, air is anticipated to enter the reactor core from the break and oxidize the in-core graphite structure in the modular pebble bed reactor (MPBR). This paper presents the results of the graphite oxidation model developed as part of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory's Direct Research and Development effort. Although gas reactors have been tried in the past with limited success, the innovations of modularity and integrated state-ofart control systems coupled with improved fuel design and a pebble bed core make this design potentially very attractive from an economic and technical perspective. A schematic diagram on a reference design of the MPBR has been established on a major component level (INEEL & MIT, 1999). Steady-state and transient thermal hydraulics models will be produced with key parameters established for these conditions at all major components. Development of an integrated plant model to allow for transient analysis on a more sophisticated level is now being developed. In this paper, preliminary results of the hypothetical air ingress are presented. A graphite oxidation model was developed to determine temperature and the control mechanism in the spherical graphite geometry.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 910940
- Report Number(s):
- INEEL/CON-01-00581; TRN: US0704299
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2001 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE),New York, NY,11/11/2001,11/16/2001
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
ACCIDENTS
AIR
CONTROL SYSTEMS
DESIGN
ECONOMICS
GAS COOLED REACTORS
GEOMETRY
GRAPHITE
INEEL
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
OXIDATION
PEBBLE BED REACTORS
REACTOR CORES
THERMAL HYDRAULICS
TRANSIENTS
accidents
HTGR
primary-pipe break