Part 3, Evaluating a small modular high temperature reactor design during control rod withdrawal and a depressurised loss of coolant accidents

Atkinson, S.*; Aoki, Takeshi; Litskevich, D.*; Merk, B.*; Yan, X.

Progress in Nuclear Energy, 134, p.103689_1 - 103689_10, 2021/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2021.103689

This article evaluates the safety features of the designed 10 MWth U-Battery concept with respect to a control rod withdrawal and a depressurised loss of coolant accident. This article provides the evaluation methodology for both transients, using a one-dimensional heat transfer model involving point reactor kinetic model to simulate reactor feedback in the control rod withdrawal. Overall, this work has shown that during the control rod withdrawal the fuel temperature rises by 110 K and at this point the excess reactivity is compensated by the negative temperature coefficient of the fuel. During the depressurised loss of coolant accident, the maximum fuel temperature reached 1455 K after 60 hours. This concludes that during both transients the temperatures maintained well below the maximum fuel operating temperature.