A modular radiant-heat-initiated passive decay-heat-removal system for salt-cooled reactors

Conference · Sun Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2007

OSTI ID:20979642

Forsberg, Charles W ^[1]

---

1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN, 37831-6165 (United States)

The Advanced High-Temperature Reactor (AHTR), also called the liquid-salt-cooled very high temperature reactor, is a new reactor concept that combines four existing technologies to create a new reactor option: coated-particle graphite-matrix fuels (the same fuel as used in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors), a liquid-fluoride-salt coolant with a boiling point >1200 deg. C, Brayton power cycles, and passive safety systems. A new passive decay-heat cooling system has been invented that is actuated by the increased temperature of the salt under accident conditions and uses radiant heat transfer from and through the salt to a heat exchanger. This safety system takes advantage of two physical properties of the system: (1) the transparency of the salt coolant and (2) the increase in the radiant heat transfer from the salt to a decay-heat exchanger, which is proportional to the temperature of the hot salt to the fourth power (T{sup 4}) minus the temperature of the heat exchanger surface to the fourth power (T{sup 4}). For a high-temperature reactor, small increases in coolant temperatures dramatically increase radiant heat transfer. (author)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 20979642
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
AFTER-HEAT REMOVAL
COATED FUEL PARTICLES
COOLANTS
COOLING SYSTEMS
FLIBE
FLUORIDES
GRAPHITE
HEAT EXCHANGERS
MATRIX MATERIALS
NUCLEAR FUELS
RADIANT HEAT TRANSFER
VHTR REACTOR