• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2020

Small nuclear reactor features higher power capacity, longer operation life than conventional power sources. It could be an ideal alternative of existing power source applied for special equipment for terrestrial or underwater missions. In this paper, a 25kWe heat pipe cooled reactor power source applied for multiple use is preliminary designed. Based on the design, a thermal-hydraulic analysis code for heat pipe cooled reactor is developed to analyze steady and transient performance of the designed nuclear reactor. For reactor design, UN fuel with 65% enrichment and potassium heat pipes are adopted in the reactor core. Tungsten and LiH are adopted as radiation shield on both sides of the reactor core. The reactor is controlled by 6 control drums with B₄C neutron absorbers. Thermoelectric generator (TEG) converts fission heat into electricity. Cooling water removes waste heat out of the reactor. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of heat pipes are simulated using thermal resistance network method. Thermal parameters of steady and transient conditions, such as the temperature distribution of every key components are obtained. Then the postulated reactor accidents for heat pipe cooled reactor, including power variation, single heat pipe failure and cooling channel blockage, are analyzed and evaluated. Results show that all the designed parameters satisfy the safety requirements. This work could provide reference to the design and application of the heat pipe cooled nuclear power source.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1698-1711
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• 2024

Heat pipe cooled reactors have gained attention as a potential solution for nuclear power generation in space and deep sea applications because of their simple design, scalability, safety and reliability. However, under complex operating conditions, a control strategy for variable load operation is necessary. This paper presents a two-dimensional transient characteristics analysis program for a heat pipe cooled reactor and proposes a variable load control strategy using the recuperator bypass (CSURB). The program was verified against previous studies, and steady-state and step-load operating conditions were calculated. For normal operating condition, the predicted temperature distribution with constant heat pipe temperature boundary conditions agrees well with the literature, with a maximum temperature difference of 0.4 K. With the implementation of the control strategy using the recuperator bypass (CSURB) proposed in this paper, it becomes feasible to achieve variable load operation and return the system to a steady state solely through the self-regulation of the reactor, without the need to operate the control drum. The average temperature difference of the fuel does not exceed 1 % at the four power levels of 70 %,80 %, 90 % and 100 % Full power. The output power of the turbine can match the load change process, and the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet of the turbine increases as the power decreases.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2094-2106
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• 2022

The solid-state core of a heat pipe cooled reactor operates at high temperatures over 1000 K with thermal and irradiation-induced expansion during burnup. The expansion changes the gap thickness between the solid components and the material properties, and may even cause the gap closure, which then significantly influences the thermal and mechanical characteristics of the reactor core. This study developed an irradiation behavior model for HPRTRAN, a heat pipe reactor system analysis code, to introduce the irradiation effects such as swelling and creep. The megawatt heat pipe reactor MegaPower was chosen as an application case. The coupled irradiation-thermal-mechanical model was developed to simulate the irradiation effects on the heat transfer and stresses of the whole reactor core. The results show that the irradiation deformation effect is significant, with the irradiation-induced strains up to 2.82% for fuel and 0.30% for monolith at the end of the reactor lifetime. The peak temperatures during the lifetime are 1027:3 K for the fuel and 956:2 K for monolith. The gap closure enhances the heat transfer but caused high stresses exceeding the yield strength in the monolith.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.12
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• pp.3879-3891
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• 2021

A heat pipe residual heat removal system is proposed to be incorporated into the reactor driven subcritical (RDS) facility, which has been proposed by MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory for testing and demonstrating the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). It aims to reduce the risk of the system operation after the shutdown of the facility. One of the main components of the system is an air-cooled heat pipe heat exchanger. The alkali-metal high-temperature heat pipe was designed to meet the operation temperature and residual heat removal requirement of the facility. The heat pipe model developed in the previous work was adopted to simulate the designed heat pipe and assess the heat transport capability. 3D numerical simulation of the subcritical facility active zone was performed by the commercial CFD software STAR CCM + to investigate the operation characteristics of this proposed system. The thermal resistance network of the heat pipe was built and incorporated into the CFD model. The nominal condition, partial loss of air flow accident and partial heat pipe failure accident were simulated and analyzed. The results show that the residual heat removal system can provide sufficient cooling of the subcritical facility with a remarkable safety margin. The heat pipe can work under the recommended operation temperature range and the heat flux is below all thermal limits. The facility peak temperature is also lower than the safety limits.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.537-556
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• 2005

A primary-pipe rupture accident is one of the design-basis accidents of a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). When the primary-pipe rupture accident occurs, air is expected to enter the reactor core from the breach and oxidize in-core graphite structures. This paper describes an experiment and analysis of the air ingress phenomena and the method fur the prevention of air ingress into the reactor during the primary-pipe rupture accident. The numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental ones regarding the density of the gas mixture, the concentration of each gas species produced by the graphite oxidation reaction and the onset time of the natural circulation of air. A hydrogen production system connected to the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) Is being designed to be able to produce hydrogen by themo-chemical iodine-Sulfur process, using a nuclear heat of 10 MW supplied by the HTTR. The HTTR hydrogen production system is first connected to a nuclear reactor in the world; hence a permeation test of hydrogen isotopes through heat exchanger is carried out to obtain detailed data for safety review and development of analytical codes. This paper also describes an overview of the hydrogen permeation test and permeability of hydrogen and deuterium of Hastelloy XR.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.5
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• pp.1802-1813
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• 2023

Conjugate heat transfer between liquid metal and solid is a common phenomenon in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor's fuel assembly and heat exchanger, dramatically affecting the reactor's safety and economy. Therefore, comprehensively studying the sophisticated conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor is profound. However, it has been evidenced that the traditional Simple Gradient Diffusion Hypothesis (SGDH), assuming a constant turbulent Prandtl number (Pr_t,, usually 0.85 - 1.0), is inappropriate in the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations of liquid metal. In recent decades, numerous studies have been performed on the four-equation model, which is expected to improve the precision of liquid metal's CFD simulations but has not been introduced into the conjugate heat transfer calculation between liquid metal and solid. Consequently, a four-equation model, consisting of the Abe k - ε turbulence model and the Manservisi k_𝜃 - ε_𝜃 heat transfer model, is applied to study the conjugate heat transfer concerning liquid metal in the present work. To verify the numerical validity of the four-equation model used in the conjugate heat transfer simulations, we reproduce Johnson's experiments of the liquid lead-bismuth-cooled turbulent pipe flow using the four-equation model and the traditional SGDH model. The simulation results obtained with different models are compared with the available experimental data, revealing that the relative errors of the local Nusselt number and mean heat transfer coefficient obtained with the four-equation model are considerably reduced compared with the SGDH model. Then, the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of liquid metal turbulent pipe flow obtained with the four-equation model are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the turbulence model used in the four-equation model on overall simulation performance is investigated. At last, the effectiveness of the four-equation model in the CFD simulations of liquid sodium conjugate heat transfer is assessed. This paper mainly proves that it is feasible to use the four-equation model in the study of liquid metal conjugate heat transfer and provides a reference for the research of conjugate heat transfer in a liquid-metal-cooled fast reactor.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.1584-1602
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• 2024

It is vital to output the required electrical power following various task requirements when the space reactor power supply is operating in orbit. The dynamic performance of the closed Brayton cycle thermoelectric conversion system is initially studied and analyzed. Based on this, a load tracking power regulation method is developed for the liquid metal cooled space reactor power system, which takes into account the inlet temperature of the lithium on the hot side of the intermediate heat exchanger, the filling quantity of helium and xenon, and the input amount of the heat pipe radiator module. After comparing several methods, a power regulation method with fast response speed and strong system stability is obtained. Under various changes in power output, the dynamic response characteristics of the ultra-small liquid metal lithium-cooled space reactor concept scheme are analyzed. The transient operation process of 70 % load power shows that core power variation is within 30 % and core coolant temperature can operate at the set safety temperature. The second loop's helium-xenon working fluid has a 65K temperature change range and a 25 % filling quantity. The lithium at the radiator loop outlet changes by less than ±7 K, and the system's main key parameters change as expected, indicating safety. The core system uses less power during 30 % load power transient operation. According to the response characteristics of various system parameters, under low power operation conditions, the lithium working fluid temperature of the radiator circuit and the high-temperature heat pipe operation temperature are limiting conditions for low-power operation, and multiple system parameters must be coordinated to ensure that the radiator system does not condense the lithium working fluid and the heat pipe.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.476-483
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• 2017

The decay heat that is produced by nuclear reactor spent fuel must be cooled in a spent fuel storage pool. A wickless heat pipe or a vertical two-phase closed thermosyphon (TPCT) is used to remove this decay heat. The objective of this research is to investigate the thermal performance of a prototype model for a large-scale vertical TPCT as a passive cooling system for a nuclear research reactor spent fuel storage pool. An experimental investigation and numerical simulation using RELAP5/MOD 3.2 were used to investigate the TPCT thermal performance. The effects of the initial pressure, filling ratio, and heat load were analyzed. Demineralized water was used as the TPCT working fluid. The cooled water was circulated in the water jacket as a cooling system. The experimental results show that the best thermal performance was obtained at a thermal resistance of $0.22^{\circ}C/W$, the lowest initial pressure, a filling ratio of 60%, and a high evaporator heat load. The simulation model that was experimentally validated showed a pattern and trend line similar to those of the experiment and can be used to predict the heat transfer phenomena of TPCT with varying inputs.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.12
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• pp.4743-4750
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• 2022

Heat pipe cooled nuclear reactor has been a very attractive technical solution to provide the power for deep space applications. In this paper, a 200 kWe space nuclear reactor power design has been proposed based on the combination of an integrated UN ceramic fuel, a heat pipe cooling system and the Stirling power generators. Neutronics and thermal analysis have been performed on the space nuclear reactor. It was found that the entire reactor core has at least 3.9 $ subcritical even under the worst-case submersion accident superimposed a single safety drum failure, and results from fuel temperature coefficient, neutron spectrum and power distribution analysis also showed that this reactor design satisfies the neutronics requirements. Thermal analysis showed that the power in the core can be successfully removed both in normal operation or under one or more heat pipes failure scenarios.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.2332-2342
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• 2024

Lead-cooled fast reactors (LFRs) have a wide range of application scenarios, which require the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of LFRs to be reliable. In the present paper, the Lead-cooled fast reactor Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis Code LETHAC was developed, including the models of pipe, heat exchanger, and pool. To verify the correctness of LETHAC, two experimental facilities and three experimental cases were selected, including GFT and PLOFA tests for NACIE-UP and Test-1 for CIRCE. The calculated results show the same and consistent trend with the experimental data, but there are some discrepancies. It can be found that LETHAC is suitable and reliable in predicting the transient behavior of lead-cooled system.