Inherently-safe high temperature gas-cooled reactor

Ogawa, Masuro

High temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), also known as VHTR, is one of the six Generation-IV nuclear energy systems. It can generate electricity at 50% thermal efficiency, and also produce hydrogen and supply high-quality process heat. Its production remains highly economical and safe even at as small as 600 MWt plant size. In this report, a new concept of inherently-safe HTGR is proposed never to compromises the safety of the public, society and environment for any accidents. It is designed so that any accident will be self-controllable to safe state only with physical phenomena but without reliance on active and/or passive devices and systems. Some inherent-safety characteristics of the inherently-safe HTGR have already been confirmed by test of the HTTR. The balance of the inherent safety characteristics required to establish the inherently-safe HTGR concept is analyzed. These results of the inherently-safe HTGR are presented, here.