Proposed Design and Operation of a Heat Pipe Reactor using the Sandia National Laboratories Annular Core Test Facility and Existing UZrH Fuel Pins

Journal Article · Sun Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2005 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1867161· OSTI ID:20630575

Wright, Steven A; Lipinski, Ronald J; Pandya, Tara; Peters, Curtis ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Laboratories, Org 6872 MS-1146, PO Box 5800 Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 (United States)

Heat Pipe Reactors (HPR) for space power conversion systems offer a number of advantages not easily provided by other systems. They require no pumping, their design easily deals with freezing and thawing of the liquid metal, and they can provide substantial levels of redundancy. Nevertheless, no reactor has ever been operated and cooled with heat pipes, and the startup and other operational characteristics of these systems remain largely unknown. Signification deviations from normal reactor heat removal mechanisms exist, because the heat pipes have fundamental heat removal limits due to sonic flow issues at low temperatures. This paper proposes an early prototypic test of a Heat Pipe Reactor (using existing 20% enriched nuclear fuel pins) to determine the operational characteristics of the HPR. The proposed design is similar in design to the HOMER and SAFE-300 HPR designs (Elliot, Lipinski, and Poston, 2003; Houts, et. al, 2003). However, this reactor uses existing UZrH fuel pins that are coupled to potassium heat pipes modules. The prototype reactor would be located in the Sandia Annular Core Research Reactor Facility where the fuel pins currently reside. The proposed reactor would use the heat pipes to transport the heat from the UZrH fuel pins to a water pool above the core, and the heat transport to the water pool would be controlled by adjusting the pressure and gas type within a small annulus around each heat pipe. The reactor would operate as a self-critical assembly at power levels up to 200 kWth. Because the nuclear heated HPR test uses existing fuel and because it would be performed in an existing facility with the appropriate safety authorization basis, the test could be performed rapidly and inexpensively. This approach makes it possible to validate the operation of a HPR and also measure the feedback mechanisms for a typical HPR design. A test of this nature would be the world's first operating Heat Pipe Reactor. This reactor is therefore called 'HPR-1'.

• OSTI ID: 20630575
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 746, Issue 1; Conference: STAIF 2005: Conference on thermophysics in microgravity; Conference on commercial/civil next generation space transportation; 22. symposium on space nuclear power and propulsion; Conference on human/robotic technology and the national vision for space exploration; 3. symposium on space colonization; 2. symposium on new frontiers and future concepts, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 13-17 Feb 2005; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.1867161; (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
ACPR REACTOR
DESIGN
FISSION
FUEL PINS
HEAT PIPES
HEAT TRANSFER
LIQUID METALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
POTASSIUM
POWER SYSTEMS
REACTOR FUELING
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR SAFETY
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
SPACE VEHICLES
TEST FACILITIES
URANIUM COMPOUNDS
WATER
ZERO POWER REACTORS
ZIRCONIUM COMPOUNDS
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems