THE EFFECT OF HELIUM SOLUBILITY IN WATER ON AN EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN OF THE PRTR

Technical Report · Wed Sep 10 04:00:00 EDT 1958

OSTI ID:4287866

Moulton, R W

The calculations indicate that on an emergency shutdown, with loss of primary coolant circulation, the hellum solubillty will show a marked decrease between ten and fifteen minutes after the initiation of the scram. The decrease in solubillty, if equillbrium is assumed, will release 4.0 cubic feet of gas at the conditions existing in the primary coolant system. This quantity of hellum, if trapped at the high polat in the system, could establish a gas block that could not be overcome by natural convection circulation. Slowing or stopping of the circulation would cause the coolant to boil in the process tube. However, with all of the process tubes connected in parallel, it is difficult to predict accurately the conditions in a particular tube and it is recommended that farther consideration be given to this problem. A properly scheduled variation in total pressure on emergency shutdown could prevent the helium release indicated above. It is recommended that this be given consideration in planning the reactor operation. Another effect of the change of helium solubility with temperature is that in normal operation passage or primary coolant through the process tubes with attendant heating causes a reduction in the helium solubility. This amounts to a value of 7.4% void fraction at the outlet of the process tubes if equilibrium is assumed. (auth)

• Research Organization: General Electric Co. Hanford Atomic Products Operation, Richland, Wash.
• NSA Number: NSA-13-003383
• OSTI ID: 4287866
• Report Number(s): HW-57376
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ACCIDENTS
BOILING
CONVECTION
COOLANT LOOPS
EQUATIONS
ERRORS
EVAPORATION
FAILURES
FLUID FLOW
GASES
HEAT TRANSFER
HEATING
HELIUM
HIGH TEMPERATURE
LEAKS
NUMERICALS
PLANNING
PLUTONIUM
PRESSURE
PRESSURE VESSELS
PRTR
REACTOR CORE
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTORS
REPROCESSING
SHUTDOWN
SOLUBILITY
STABILITY
TEMPERATURE
TUBES
VOLUME
WATER
WATER COOLANT