An investigation of RVACS (reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system) design improvements

Conference · Tue Oct 31 23:00:00 EST 1989 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:5478071

Tzanos, C P; Tessier, J H; Pedersen, D R ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Laboratory, IL (USA)

One of the main safety features of the current liquid-metal reactor (LMR) designs is the utilization of decay heat removal systems that remove heat by natural convection. In the reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system (RVACS), decay heat is removed by naturally circulating air in the gap between the guard vessel and a baffle wall surrounding the guard vessel. The objective of this work was to determine the impact of a number of design parameters on the performance of the RVACS of a pool LMR. These parameters were (a) the stack height, (b) the size of the airflow gap, (c) the system pressure loss, (d) fins on the guard vessel or the baffle wall, and (e) roughness (in the form of repeated ribs) on the airflow channel walls. Reactor designs ranging from 400 to 3,500 MW(thermal) were considered. From the RVACS design parameters considered in this analysis, an optimized ribbed configuration gave the best improvement in RVACS performance. For a 3,500-MW(thermal) LMR, the peak sodium and cladding temperatures were reduced by 52 K.

• OSTI ID: 5478071
• Report Number(s): CONF-891103--
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States), Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Vol. 60; ISSN TANSA; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500 -- Power Reactors
Breeding
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
220900* -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Reactor Safety
AFTER-HEAT REMOVAL
ALKALI METALS
BAFFLES
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAINERS
CONTROL EQUIPMENT
CONVECTION
COOLING SYSTEMS
DESIGN
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SYSTEMS
ENERGY TRANSFER
ENGINEERED SAFETY SYSTEMS
EQUIPMENT
FLOW REGULATORS
HEAT TRANSFER
LIQUID METAL COOLED REACTORS
MASS TRANSFER
METALS
NATURAL CONVECTION
OPERATION
OPTIMIZATION
PERFORMANCE
PLANNING
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
REACTOR VESSELS
REACTORS
REMOVAL
RHR SYSTEMS
ROUGHNESS
S CODES
SCRAM
SHUTDOWN
SODIUM
SURFACE PROPERTIES
TRANSIENTS