Thermo-hydraulic experimental validation of an integrated modular small reactor operating in full power natural circulation

• Published in: Science China. Technological sciences Vol. 57; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Yang, XingTuan, Ren, Cheng, Liu, ZhiYong, Tu, JiYuan, Jiang, ShengYao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2014
• Subjects: Circulation; Engineering; Heat exchangers; Heat transfer; Heaters; Nuclear engineering; Nuclear power generation; Nuclear reactor components; Nuclear reactors; 功率; 参数验证; 小型反应堆; 操作参数; 模块化设计; 热工水力实验; 自然循环能力; 高集成; small reactor; natural circulation; validation experiment
• ISSN: 1674-7321; 1869-1900
• DOI: 10.1007/s11431-013-5425-9

Small reactors have become a new hotspot of international nuclear energy research. The nuclear heating reactor （NHR） tech- nology developed by Tsinghua University is an important multipurpose small reactor solution with features such as high inte- gration, modular design and full power natural circulation. A new small reactor based on the existing NHR-200 reactor was developed by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology of Tsinghua University. A full-scale natural circulation test loop with the same operating parameters as the actual reactor was built in order to experimentally validate the natural circula- tion ability of the reactor primary loop and heat-transfer ability of fuel assemblies and heat exchangers. Corresponding results are given in detail, including parameter validation of the reactor primary loop, flow rules of the natural circulation and heat-transfer coefficients of heaters and heat exchangers, which can be directly used in the actual reactor as a reference for op- timization design. Finally, a characteristic parameter k is proposed to represent the natural circulation ability of a system. By using the new data arrangement method in the form of parameter k, comprehensive experimental results of the natural circula- tion can be represented by a simple integrated expression. The work in this paper is of importance in broadening application fields and pushing forward commercialization of the NHR type reactors.