Reactor physics experiment on a graphite-moderated core to construct integral experiment database for HTGR

Okita, Shoichiro; Fukaya, Yuji; Sakon, Atsushi*; Sano, Tadafumi*; Takahashi, Yoshiyuki*; Unesaki, Hironobu*

Nuclear Science and Engineering, 197(8), p.2251 - 2257, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2087836

Study on Pu-burner high temperature gas-cooled reactor in Japan; Design study of fuel and reactor core

Goto, Minoru; Aihara, Jun; Inaba, Yoshitomo; Ueta, Shohei; Fukaya, Yuji; Okamoto, Koji*

Proceedings of 9th International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology (HTR 2018) (USB Flash Drive), 6 Pages, 2018/10

JAEA has conducted design studies of a Pu-burner HTGR. The Pu-burner HTGR incinerates Pu by fission, and hence a high burn-up is required for the efficient incineration. In the fuel design, a thin ZrC layer, which acts as an oxygen getter and suppresses the internal pressure, was coated on the fuel kernel to prevent the CFP failure at the high burn-up. A stress analysis of the SiC layer, which acts as a pressure vessel for the CFP, was performed for with consideration of the depression effect due to the ZrC layer. As a result, the CFP failure fraction at high burn-up of 500 GWd/t satisfied the target value. In the reactor core design, an axial fuel shuffling was employed to attain the high burn-up, and the nuclear burn-up calculations with the whole core model and the fuel temperature calculations were performed. As a result, the nuclear characteristics, which are the shutdown margin and the temperature coefficient of reactivity, and the fuel temperature satisfied their target values.

Development of fuel temperature calculation code for HTGRs

Inaba, Yoshitomo; Nishihara, Tetsuo

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 101, p.383 - 389, 2017/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2016.11.006

In order to ensure the thermal integrity of fuel in High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs), it is necessary that the maximum fuel temperature in normal operation is to be lower than a thermal design target. In the core thermal-hydraulic design of block-type HTGRs, the maximum fuel temperature should be evaluated considering data such as thermal power, core geometry, power density and neutron fluence distributions, and core coolant flow distribution. The fuel temperature calculation code used in the design stage of the High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) presupposes to run on UNIX systems, and its operation and execution procedure are complicated and are not user-friendly. Therefore, a new fuel temperature calculation code named FTCC which has a user-friendly system such as a simple and easy operation and execution procedure, was developed. This paper describes calculation objects and models, basic equations, improvement points from the HTTR design code in FTCC, and the result of a validation calculation with FTCC. The calculation result obtained by FTCC provides good agreement with that of the HTTR design code, and then FTCC will be used as one of the design codes for HTGRs. In addition, the effect of cooling forms on the maximum fuel temperature is investigated by using FTCC. As a result, it was found that the effect of center hole cooling for hollow fuel compacts and gapless cooling with monolithic type fuel rods on reducing the temperature is very high.

New reactor cavity cooling system with a novel shape and passive safety features

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Matsumoto, Tatsuya*; Morita, Koji*

Proceedings of 2016 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2016) (CD-ROM), p.1250 - 1257, 2016/04

After Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster by TEPCO, a cooling system to prevent core damage became more important from the perspective of defense in depth. Therefore, a new, highly efficient RCCS with passive safety features without a requirement for electricity and mechanical drive is proposed. Employing the air as the working fluid and the ambient air as the ultimate heat sink, the new RCCS design strongly reduces the possibility of losing the heat sink for decay heat removal. The RCCS can always stably and passively remove a part of the released heat at the rated operation and the decay heat after reactor shutdown. Specifically, emergency power generators are not necessary and the decay heat can be passively removed for a long time, even forever if the heat removal capacity of the RCCS is sufficient. We can also define the experimental conditions on radiation and natural convection for the scale-down heat removal test facility.

Development of fuel temperature calculation file for high temperature gas-cooled reactors

Inaba, Yoshitomo; Isaka, Kazuyoshi; Fukaya, Yuji; Tachibana, Yukio

JAEA-Data/Code 2014-023, 64 Pages, 2015/01

JAEA-Data-Code-2014-023.pdf:7.15MB

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency has performed the conceptual designs of small-sized High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) systems, aiming for the deployment of the systems to overseas such as developing countries. The small-sized HTGR systems can provide power generation by steam turbine, high temperature steam for industry process and/or low temperature steam for district heating. In the core thermal and hydraulic designs of HTGRs, it is important to evaluate the maximum fuel temperature so that the thermal integrity of the fuel is ensured. In order to calculate and evaluate the fuel temperature on personal computers (PCs) in a convenient manner, the calculation file based on the Microsoft Excel were developed. In this report, the basic equations used in the calculation file, the calculation method and procedure, and the results of the validation calculation are described.

Improvement of core dynamics analysis of control rod withdrawal test in HTGR

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Nakagawa, Shigeaki

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai Wabun Rombunshi, 5(1), p.45 - 56, 2006/03

http://doi.org/10.3327/taesj2002.5.45

The HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor), which has thermal output of 30MW, coolant inlet temperature of 395C and coolant outlet temperature of 850C/950C, is a first high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) in Japan. The HTGR has a high inherent safety potential to accident condition. Safety demonstration tests using the HTTR are underway in order to demonstrate such excellent inherent safety features of the HTGR. A one-point core dynamics approximation with one fuel channel model had applied to this analysis. It was found that the analytical model for core dynamics couldn't simulate the reactor power behavior accurately. This report proposes an original method using temperature coefficients of some regions in the core. It is crucial to evaluate this method precisely to simulate a performance of HTGR during the test.

Core thermal-hydraulic design

Takada, Eiji*; Nakagawa, Shigeaki; Fujimoto, Nozomu; Tochio, Daisuke

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 233(1-3), p.37 - 43, 2004/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2004.07.009

The core thermal-hydraulic design for the HTTR is carried out to evaluate the maximum fuel temperature at normal operation and anticipated operation occurrences. To evaluate coolant flow distribution and maximum fuel temperature, we use the experimental results such as heat transfer coefficient, pressure loss coefficient obtained by mock-up test facilities. Furthermore, we evaluated hot spot factors of fuel temperatures conservatively. As the results of the core thermal-hydraulic design, an effective coolant flow through the core of 88 % of the total flow is achieved at minimum. The maximum fuel temperature appears during the high temperature test operation, and reaches 1492 C for the maximum through the burn-up cycle, which satisfies the design limit of 1495 C at normal operation. It is also confirmed that the maximum fuel temperature at any anticipated operation occurrences does not exceed the fuel design limit of 1600 C in the safety analysis. On the other hand, result of re-evaluation of analysis condition and hot spot factors based on operation data of the HTTR, the maximum fuel temperature for 160 effective full power operation days is estimated to be 1463 C. It is confirmed that the core thermal-hydraulic design gives conservative results.

Characteristic test of initial HTTR core

Nojiri, Naoki; Shimakawa, Satoshi; Fujimoto, Nozomu; Goto, Minoru

Nuclear Engineering and Design, 233(1-3), p.283 - 290, 2004/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2004.08.015

This paper describes the results of core physics test in start-up and power-up of the HTTR. The tests were conducted in order to ensure performance and safety of the high temperature gas cooled reactor, and was carried out to measure the critical approach, the excess reactivity, the shutdown margin, the control rod worth, the reactivity coefficient, the neutron flux distribution and the power distribution. The expected core performance and the required reactor safety characteristics were verified from the results of measurements and calculations.

Heat removal performance of auxiliary cooling system for the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor during scrams

Takeda, Takeshi; Tachibana, Yukio; Iyoku, Tatsuo; Takenaka, Satsuki*

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 30(7), p.811 - 830, 2003/05

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0306-4549(02)00119-6

no abstracts in English

Start up core physics tests of High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR), 2; First criticality by an annular form fuel loading and its criticality prediction method

Fujimoto, Nozomu; Nakano, Masaaki*; Takeuchi, Mitsuo; Fujisaki, Shingo; Yamashita, Kiyonobu

Nihon Genshiryoku Gakkai-Shi, 42(5), p.458 - 464, 2000/05

https://doi.org/10.3327/jaesj.42.458

no abstracts in English