THE NEXT GENERATION NUCLEAR PLANT GRAPHITE PROGRAM
Developing new nuclear grades of graphite used in the core of a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) is one of the critical development activities being pursued within the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) program. Graphite’s thermal stability (in an inert gas environment), high compressive strength, fabricability, and cost effective price make it an ideal core structural material for the HTGR reactor design. While the general characteristics necessary for producing nuclear grade graphite are understood, historical “nuclear” grades no longer exist. New grades must be fabricated, characterized, and irradiated to demonstrate that current grades of graphite exhibit acceptable non-irradiated and irradiated properties upon which the thermo-mechanical design of the structural graphite in NGNP is based. The NGNP graphite R&D program has selected a handful of commercially available types for research and development activities necessary to qualify this nuclear grade graphite for use within the NGNP reactor. These activities fall within five primary areas; 1) material property characterization, 2) irradiated material property characterization, 3) modeling, and 4) ASTM test development, and 5) ASME code development efforts. Individual research and development activities within each area are being pursued with the ultimate goal of obtaining a commercial operating license for the nuclear graphite from the US NRC.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 940035
- Report Number(s):
- INL/CON-08-14693; TRN: US0806958
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 4th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology - HTR 2008,Washington D.C. USA,09/28/2008,10/01/2008
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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