Emergency Decay Heat Removal in a GEN-IV Gas-Cooled Fast Reactor

Conference · Sat Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2006

OSTI ID:20995571

Cheng, Lap Y; Ludewig, Hans; Jo, Jae ^[1]

---

1. Brookhaven National Laboratory, P.O. Box 5000, Upton, NY 11973-5000 (United States)

A series of transient analyses using the system code RELAP5-3d has been performed to confirm the efficacy of a proposed hybrid active/passive combination approach to the decay heat removal for an advanced 2400 MWt GEN-IV gas-cooled fast reactor. The accident sequence of interest is a station blackout simultaneous with a small break (10 sq.inch/0.645 m{sup 2}) in the reactor vessel. The analyses cover the three phases of decay heat removal in a depressurization accident: (1) forced flow cooling by the power conversion unit (PCU) coast down, (2) active forced flow cooling by a battery powered blower, and (3) passive cooling by natural circulation. The blower is part of an emergency cooling system (ECS) that by design is to sustain passive decay heat removal via natural circulation cooling 24 hours after shutdown. The RELAP5 model includes the helium-cooled reactor, the ECS (primary and secondary side), the PCU with all the rotating machinery (turbine and compressors) and the heat transfer components (recuperator, pre-cooler and inter-cooler), and the guard containment that surrounds the reactor and the PCU. The transient analysis has demonstrated the effectiveness of passive decay heat removal by natural circulation cooling when the guard containment pressure is maintained at or above 800 kPa. (authors)

• Research Organization: The ASME Foundation, Inc., Three Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016-5990 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 20995571
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
ACCIDENTS
AFTER-HEAT REMOVAL
BLOWERS
COMPRESSORS
CONTAINMENT
CONVERSION
COOLING
COOLING SYSTEMS
DEPRESSURIZATION
DESIGN
FAST REACTORS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HELIUM COOLED REACTORS
NATURAL CONVECTION
OUTAGES
REACTOR VESSELS
SHUTDOWN
TRANSIENTS
TURBINES