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Title: Preliminary design of the cooling system for a gas-cooled, high-fluence fast pulsed reactor (HFFPR)

Abstract

The High-Fluence Fast Pulsed Reactor (HFFPR) is a research reactor concept currently being evaluated as a source for weapon effects experimentation and advanced reactor safety experiments. One of the designs under consideration is a gas-cooled design for testing large-scale weapon hardware or large bundles of full-length, fast reactor fuel pins. This report describes a conceptual cooling system design for such a reactor. The primary coolant would be helium and the secondary coolant would be water. The size of the helium-to-water heat exchanger and the water-to-water heat exchanger will be on the order of 0.9 metre (3 feet) in diameter and 3 metres (10 feet) in length. Analysis indicates that the entire cooling system will easily fit into the existing Sandia Engineering Reactor Facility (SERF) building. The alloy Incoloy 800H appears to be the best candidate for the tube material in the helium-to-water heat exchanger. Type 316 stainless steel has been recommended for the shell of this heat exchanger. Estimates place the cost of the helium-to-water heat exchanger at approximately $100,000, the water-to-water heat exchanger at approximately $25,000, and the helium pump at approximately $450,000. The overall cost of the cooling system will approach $2 million.

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
OSTI Identifier:
6558983
Report Number(s):
SAND-77-0963
TRN: 79-001999
DOE Contract Number:
EY-76-C-04-0789
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS; PULSED REACTORS; REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS; DESIGN; COST; FAST REACTORS; GAS COOLED REACTORS; HEAT EXCHANGERS; HELIUM; WATER; COOLING SYSTEMS; CRYOGENIC FLUIDS; ELEMENTS; EPITHERMAL REACTORS; FLUIDS; HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS; NONMETALS; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; RARE GASES; REACTOR COMPONENTS; REACTORS; 220600* - Nuclear Reactor Technology- Research, Test & Experimental Reactors

Citation Formats

Monteith, H.C. Preliminary design of the cooling system for a gas-cooled, high-fluence fast pulsed reactor (HFFPR). United States: N. p., 1978. Web. doi:10.2172/6558983.
Monteith, H.C. Preliminary design of the cooling system for a gas-cooled, high-fluence fast pulsed reactor (HFFPR). United States. doi:10.2172/6558983.
Monteith, H.C. Sun . "Preliminary design of the cooling system for a gas-cooled, high-fluence fast pulsed reactor (HFFPR)". United States. doi:10.2172/6558983. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/6558983.
@article{osti_6558983,
title = {Preliminary design of the cooling system for a gas-cooled, high-fluence fast pulsed reactor (HFFPR)},
author = {Monteith, H.C.},
abstractNote = {The High-Fluence Fast Pulsed Reactor (HFFPR) is a research reactor concept currently being evaluated as a source for weapon effects experimentation and advanced reactor safety experiments. One of the designs under consideration is a gas-cooled design for testing large-scale weapon hardware or large bundles of full-length, fast reactor fuel pins. This report describes a conceptual cooling system design for such a reactor. The primary coolant would be helium and the secondary coolant would be water. The size of the helium-to-water heat exchanger and the water-to-water heat exchanger will be on the order of 0.9 metre (3 feet) in diameter and 3 metres (10 feet) in length. Analysis indicates that the entire cooling system will easily fit into the existing Sandia Engineering Reactor Facility (SERF) building. The alloy Incoloy 800H appears to be the best candidate for the tube material in the helium-to-water heat exchanger. Type 316 stainless steel has been recommended for the shell of this heat exchanger. Estimates place the cost of the helium-to-water heat exchanger at approximately $100,000, the water-to-water heat exchanger at approximately $25,000, and the helium pump at approximately $450,000. The overall cost of the cooling system will approach $2 million.},
doi = {10.2172/6558983},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1978},
month = {Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1978}
}

Technical Report:

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  • This report presents a comprehensive set of safety design bases to support the conceptual design of the gas-cooled fast breeder reactor (GCFR) residual heat removal (RHR) systems. The report is structured to enable the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to review and comment in the licensability of these design bases. This report also presents information concerning a specific plant design and its performance as an auxiliary part to assist the NRC in evaluating the safety design bases.
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  • The Reactor Cavity Cooling System (RCCS) of the Modular High- Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (MHTGR) proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy is designed to remove the nuclear afterheat passively in the event that neither the heat transport system nor the shutdown cooling circulator subsystem is available. A computer dynamic simulation for the physical and mathematical modeling of and RCCS is described here. Two conclusions can be made form computations performed under the assumption of a uniform reactor vessel temperature. First, the heat transferred across the annulus from the reactor vessel and then to ambient conditions is very dependent on themore » surface emissivities of the reactor vessel and RCCS panels. These emissivities should be periodically checked to ensure the safety function of the RCCS. Second, the heat transfer from the reactor vessel is reduced by a maximum of 10% by the presence of steam at 1 atm in the reactor cavity annulus for an assumed constant in the transmission of radiant energy across the annulus can be expected to result in an increase in the reactor vessel temperature for the MHTGR. Further investigation of participating radiation media, including small particles, in the reactor cavity annulus is warranted. 26 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.« less