Conceptual Design of a Reactor Pressure Vessel and its Internals for a HPLWR

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

OSTI ID:21016423

Fischer, Kai ^[1]; Starflinger, Joerg; Schulenberg, Thomas ^[2]

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1. EnBW Kraftwerke AG, Kernkraftwerk Philippsburg, Rheinschanzinsel D-76661 Philippsburg (Germany)
2. Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Institute for Nuclear and Energy Technologies P.O. Box 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe (Germany)

A design for the Reactor Pressure Vessel (RPV) and its internals for a HPLWR (High Performance Light Water Reactor) is presented. The RPV has been dimensioned using the pressure vessel code for nuclear power plants in Germany. In order to use conventional vessel materials such as 20 MnMoNi 5 5 (United States: SA 508), the vessel inner wall has to be kept only in contact with coolant at inlet temperature. Therefore, the hot coolant pipe connection from the steam plenum to the outlet is separated from the RPV inner wall using a thermal sleeve. The core inside the vessel rests on a support plate which is connected to the core barrel. The steam plenum is fixed on top of the core using support brackets which are attached to the adjustable steam outlet pipes. This way, the steam plenum rests on the outlet flanges of the lower vessel, while the core barrel is suspended at the closure head flange of the vessel to control thermal expansions between the internals and the RPV and to minimize thermal stresses. Both, inlet and outlet mass flows are separated via C-ring seals to prevent mixing. The control rod guides in the upper plenum are also suspended at the vessel flange and aligned inside the core barrel using centering pins. (authors)

• Research Organization: American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
• OSTI ID: 21016423
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
CONTROL
CONTROL ELEMENTS
COOLANTS
DESIGN
DRILLING EQUIPMENT
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY
FLANGES
NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
PERFORMANCE
PIPES
PRESSURE VESSELS
STEAM
THERMAL EXPANSION
THERMAL STRESSES
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS