Nuclear reactor building

Patent · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 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., Boston, MA (United States)
• 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

Related Subjects

nuclear
reactor
building
enclosing
containment
vessel
wetwell
disposed
therein
inner
outer
walls
floor
roof
defining
pool
suppression
chamber
thereabove
define
drywell
surrounding
plurality
vents
flow
communication
channeling
steam
released
loca
example
condensing
shell
inside
extends
dry
gap
devoid
water
preferred
embodiment
form
slab
spaced
apart
support
beams
therebetween
auxiliary
additionally
provide
increased
volume
improving
pressure
margin
provide increased
chamber disposed
outer wall
wetwell pool
containment vessel
nuclear reactor
preferred embodiment
spaced apart
disposed therein
flow communication
outer walls
disposed inside
reactor building
steam released
vessel define
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