Completion of long term high temperature operation of HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor), 1; Outline of test plan

Takada, Shoji; Sekita, Kenji; Kameyama, Yasuhiko; Saito, Kenji ; Iigaki, Kazuhiko ; Sawa, Kazuhiro; Tachibana, Yukio 

JAEA has carried out R&Ds to establish the basis of HTGR technology. The long term high temperature operation of 50 days has been successfully completed by HTTR first in the world. The operation was initiated on Jan. 22, 2010 and completed on Mar. 13 to demonstrate long term supply of high temperature heat for hydrogen production. The operation period was set 50 days by considering the following reasons; (1) changes of characteristics and performance deterioration can be confirmed, (2) not only to acquire the data on plant dynamics necessary for design and safety review but also to demonstrate stability as a heat source during long term continuous operation. The core burn-up characteristics, impurity control of helium gas, performance of high temperature components, integrity of internal core structure components were evaluated by the test data acquired through the operation.