Rise-to-power test in High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor; Test progress and summary of test results up to 30MW of reactor thermal power

Nakagawa, Shigeaki  ; Fujimoto, Nozomu; Shimakawa, Satoshi; Nojiri, Naoki ; Takeda, Takeshi ; Saikusa, Akio ; Ueta, Shohei   ; Kojima, Takao; Takada, Eiji*; Saito, Kenji ; Tachibana, Yukio ; Ashikagaya, Yoshinobu; Kawasaki, Kozo; Nakazawa, Toshio; Sawa, Kazuhiro; Iyoku, Tatsuo

Rise-to-power test in the HTTR has been performed from April 23rd to June 6th in 2000 as phase 1 test up to 10MW, from January 29th to March 1st in 2001 as phase 2 test up to 20MW in the rated operation mode and from April 14th to June 8th in 2001 as phase 3 test up to 20MW in the high temperature test operation mode. Phase 4 test to achieve the thermal reactor power of 30MW started from October 23rd in 2001. On December 7th it was confirmed that the thermal reactor power reached to 30MW and the reactor outlet coolant temperature reached to 850C. JAERI obtained the certificate of pre-operation test from MEXT because all the pre-operation tests by MEXT were passed successfully. From the test results of rise-up-power test up to 30MW, the performance of reactor and cooling system were confirmed, and it was confirmed that an operation of reactor facility could be performed safely. Some problems to be solved were found through tests. By means of solving them, the reactor operation with the reactor outlet coolant temperature of 950C will be achievable.