Nuclear heat supply fluctuation tests by non-nuclear heating with HTTR

HTTRを利用した非核加熱による核熱供給変動試験

稲葉 良知  ; 関田 健司; 根本 隆弘; 本多 友貴; 栃尾 大輔 ; 佐藤 博之  ; 中川 繁昭  ; 高田 昌二; 沢 和弘

Inaba, Yoshitomo; Sekita, Kenji; Nemoto, Takahiro; Honda, Yuki; Tochio, Daisuke; Sato, Hiroyuki; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Takada, Shoji; Sawa, Kazuhiro

高温ガス炉の熱利用系は、化学プラントメーカーの参入拡大と経済性向上のため、非原子力級として設計される。したがって、熱利用系で異常事象が生じても、原子炉の運転を続けられることが必要である。原子力機構は、異常事象後に原子炉の運転を続ける際の熱負荷変動吸収を評価するための計算コードを開発し、HTTRの運転データを用いてコードを改良してきた。しかしながら、更なるコードの改良のためには、原子炉入口冷却材温度の変動に対応する炉側部金属及び炉心支持黒鉛構造物の過渡温度挙動に関するデータが不足していた。そこで、HTTRを使った核熱供給変動試験を、熱的効果に焦点を絞った非核加熱運転で実施した。試験では、冷却材ヘリウムガス温度をガス循環機の圧縮熱によって120Cまで加熱し、新しい試験手順を考案することによって17Cの十分高い温度変動を核出力のない理想条件下で原子炉入口冷却材に加え、炉側部金属及び炉心支持黒鉛構造物の温度応答を調べた。試験結果は、炉側部金属の温度応答が炉心支持黒鉛構造物より速いことを予測通り適切に示した。また、炉側部金属による熱負荷変動吸収のメカニズムを明らかにした。

The nuclear heat utilization systems connected to High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) will be designed on the basis of non-nuclear grade standards in terms of the easier entry of chemical plant companies and the construction economics of the systems. Therefore, it is necessary that the reactor operations can be continued even if abnormal events occur in the systems. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has developed a calculation code to evaluate the absorption of thermal load fluctuations by the reactors when the reactor operations are continued after such events, and has improved the code based on the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) operating data. However, there were insufficient data on the transient temperature behavior of the metallic core side components and the graphite core support structures corresponding to the fluctuation of the reactor inlet coolant temperature for further improvement of the code. Thus, nuclear heat supply fluctuation tests with the HTTR were carried out in non-nuclear heating operation to focus on thermal effect. In the tests, the coolant helium gas temperature was heated up to 120C by the compression heat of the gas circulators in the HTTR, and a sufficiently high fluctuation of 17C by devising a new test procedure was imposed on the reactor inlet coolant under the ideal condition without the effect of the nuclear power. Then, the temperature responses of the metallic core side components and the graphite core support structures were investigated. The test results adequately showed as predicted that the temperature responses of the metallic components are faster than those of the graphite structures, and the mechanism of the thermal load fluctuation absorption by the metallic components was clarified.