The preliminary analysis on the steady-state and kinetic features of the molten salt pebble-bed reactor
- Inst. of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua Univ., Beijing 100084 (China)
- Green Hi-Tek, 104 Harland Court, Oak Ridge, TN 37830 (United States)
A novel design concept of molten salt pebble-bed reactor with an ultra-simplified integral primary circuit called 'Nuclear Hot Spring' has been proposed, featured by horizontal coolant flow in a deep pool pebble-bed reactor, providing 'natural safety' features with natural circulation under full power operation and less expensive primary circuit arrangement. In this work, the steady-state physical properties of the equilibrium state of the molten salt pebble-bed reactor are calculated by using the VSOP code, and the steady-state thermo-hydraulic analysis is carried out based on the approximation of absolutely horizontal flow of the coolant through the core. A new concept of 2-dimensional, both axial and radial, multi-pass on-line fuelling scheme is presented. The result reveals that the radial multi-pass scheme provides more flattened power distribution and safer temperature distribution than the one-pass scheme. A parametric analysis is made corresponding to different pebble diameters, the key parameter of the core resistance and the temperature at the pebble center. It is verified that within a wide range of pebble diameters, the maximum pebble center temperatures are far below the safety limit of the fuel, and the core resistance is considerably less than the buoyant force, indicating that the natural circulation under full power operation is achievable and the ultra-simplified integral primary circuit without any pump is possible. For the kinetic properties, it is verified that the negative temperature coefficient is achieved in sufficient under-moderated condition through the preliminary analysis on the temperature coefficients of fuel, coolant and moderator. The requirement of reactivity compensation at the shutdown stages of the operation period is calculated for the further studies on the reactivity control. The molten salt pebble-bed reactor with horizontal coolant flow can provide enhanced safety and economical features. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22106020
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP '12: 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants, Chicago, IL (United States), 24-28 Jun 2012; Other Information: Country of input: France; 13 refs.; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2012 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants - ICAPP '12| 2799 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
MOLTEN SALT COOLED REACTORS
NATURAL CONVECTION
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PEBBLE BED REACTORS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POWER DISTRIBUTION
PRIMARY COOLANT CIRCUITS
REACTIVITY
REACTOR FUELING
REACTOR OPERATION
REACTOR SAFETY
REACTOR SHUTDOWN
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION