Nuclear reactor building

Patent · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:869230

Gou, Perng-Fei ^[1]; Townsend, Harold E ^[2]; Barbanti, Giancarlo ^[3]

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1. Saratoga, CA
2. Campbell, CA
3. Sirtori, IT

A reactor building for enclosing a nuclear reactor includes a containment vessel having a wetwell disposed therein. The wetwell includes inner and outer walls, a floor, and a roof defining a wetwell pool and a suppression chamber disposed thereabove. The wetwell and containment vessel define a drywell surrounding the reactor. A plurality of vents are disposed in the wetwell pool in flow communication with the drywell for channeling into the wetwell pool steam released in the drywell from the reactor during a LOCA for example, for condensing the steam. A shell is disposed inside the wetwell and extends into the wetwell pool to define a dry gap devoid of wetwell water and disposed in flow communication with the suppression chamber. In a preferred embodiment, the wetwell roof is in the form of a slab disposed on spaced apart support beams which define therebetween an auxiliary chamber. The dry gap, and additionally the auxiliary chamber, provide increased volume to the suppression chamber for improving pressure margin.

• Research Organization: General Electric Co
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-90SF18494
• Assignee: General Electric Company (San Jose, CA)
• Patent Number(s): US 5301215
• OSTI ID: 869230
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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dry
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steam
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wetwell pool