Report of summer holiday practical training 2020; Feasibility study on nuclear battery using HTTR core; Feasibility study for nuclear design, 3

Ishitsuka, Etsuo; Mitsui, Wataru*; Yamamoto, Yudai*; Nakagawa, Kyoichi*; Ho, H. Q.; Ishii, Toshiaki; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Nagasumi, Satoru; Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Kenzhina, I.*; et al.

JAEA-Technology 2021-016, 16 Pages, 2021/09

JAEA-Technology-2021-016.pdf:1.8MB

As a summer holiday practical training 2020, the feasibility study for nuclear design of a nuclear battery using HTTR core was carried out, and the downsizing of reactor core were studied by the MVP-BURN. As a result, it is clear that a 1.6 m radius reactor core, containing 54 (183 layers) fuel blocks with 20% enrichment of U, and BeO neutron reflector, could operate continuously for 30 years with thermal power of 5 MW. Number of fuel blocks of this compact core is 36% of the HTTR core. As a next step, the further downsizing of core by changing materials of the fuel block will be studied.

High temperature gas-cooled reactors

Takeda, Tetsuaki*; Inagaki, Yoshiyuki; Aihara, Jun; Aoki, Takeshi; Fujiwara, Yusuke; Fukaya, Yuji; Goto, Minoru; Ho, H. Q.; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Imai, Yoshiyuki; et al.

High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors; JSME Series in Thermal and Nuclear Power Generation, Vol.5, 464 Pages, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-05383-9

As a general overview of the research and development of a High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) in JAEA, this book describes the achievements by the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) on the designs, key component technologies such as fuel, reactor internals, high temperature components, etc., and operational experience such as rise-to-power tests, high temperature operation at 950C, safety demonstration tests, etc. In addition, based on the knowledge of the HTTR, the development of designs and component technologies such as high performance fuel, helium gas turbine and hydrogen production by IS process for commercial HTGRs are described. These results are very useful for the future development of HTGRs. This book is published as one of a series of technical books on fossil fuel and nuclear energy systems by the Power Energy Systems Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Study on control rod model in HTTR core analysis

Nagasumi, Satoru; Matsunaka, Kazuaki*; Fujimoto, Nozomu*; Ishii, Toshiaki; Ishitsuka, Etsuo

JAEA-Technology 2020-003, 13 Pages, 2020/05

JAEA-Technology-2020-003.pdf:1.5MB

The influence of the control rod model on the nuclear characteristics of the HTTR has been evaluated, by creating detailed control rod model, in which geometric shape was close to that of the actual control rod structure, in MVP code. According to refinement of the control rod model, the critical control rod position was 11 mm lower than that of the conventional model, and this was close to the measured value of 1775 mm. The reactivity absorbed by the shock absorber located at the tip of the control rod was 0.2%k/k, and this was 14 mm difference at the critical control rod position. Considering the effect of refinement of the control rod and the effect of the shock absorber, the correction amount for the analysis value in SRAC code due to the shape effect of the control rod, is -0.05%k/k in reactivity, and -3 mm in the critical control rod position at low temperature criticality.

Loss of core cooling test with one cooling line inactive in Vessel Cooling System of High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor

Fujiwara, Yusuke; Nemoto, Takahiro; Tochio, Daisuke; Shinohara, Masanori; Ono, Masato; Takada, Shoji

Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, 3(4), p.041013_1 - 041013_8, 2017/10

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4036985

In HTTR, the test was carried out at the reactor thermal power of 9 MW under the condition that one cooling line of VCS was stopped to simulate the partial loss of cooling function from the surface of RPV in addition to the loss of forced cooling flow in the core simulation. The test results showed that temperature change of the core internal structures and the biological shielding concrete was slow during the test. Temperature of RPV decreased several degrees during the test. The temperature decrease of biological shielding made of concrete was within 1C. The numerical result simulating the detail configuration of the cooling tubes of VCS showed that the temperature rise of cooling tubes of VCS was about 15C, which is sufficiently small, which did not significantly affect the temperature of biological shielding concrete. As the results, it was confirmed that the cooling ability of VCS can be kept in case that one cooling line of VCS is lost.

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.

Loss of core cooling test without one cooling line in Vessel Cooling System (VCS) of High Temperature engineering Test Reactor (HTTR)

Fujiwara, Yusuke; Nemoto, Takahiro; Tochio, Daisuke; Shinohara, Masanori; Ono, Masato; Hamamoto, Shimpei; Iigaki, Kazuhiko; Takada, Shoji

Proceedings of 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE-24) (DVD-ROM), 7 Pages, 2016/06

https://doi.org/10.1115/ICONE24-60858

In HTTR, the test was carried out at the reactor thermal power of 9 MW under the condition that one cooling line of VCS was stopped to simulate the partial loss of cooling function from the surface of RPV in addition to the loss of forced cooling flow in the core simulation. The test results showed that temperature change of the core internal structures and the biological shielding concrete was slow during the test. Temperature of RPV decreased several degrees during the test. The temperature decrease of biological shielding made of concrete was within 1C. The numerical result simulating the detail configuration of the cooling tubes of VCS showed that the temperature rise of cooling tubes of VCS was about 15 degree C, which is sufficiently small, which did not significantly affect the temperature of biological shielding concrete. As the results, it was confirmed that the cooling ability of VCS can be kept in case that one cooling line of VCS is lost.

Visualization of internal structures of reactor core in the HTTR; Proposal of non-destructive inspection by cosmic-ray muon radiography

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi

Hokeikyo Nyusu, (56), p.2 - 4, 2015/10

http://www.irm.or.jp/news56.pdf

Licensable Patent Information Database

Patent publication (In Japanese)

In our study, we focused on a nondestructive inspection method by cosmic-ray muons which could be used to observe the internal reactor from outside the RPV and the CV. We conducted an observation test on the HTTR to evaluate the applicability of the method to the internal visualization of a reactor. We also analytically evaluated the resolution of existing muon telescopes to assess their suitability for the HTTR observation, and were able to detect the major structures of the HTTR based on the distribution of the surface densities calculated from the coincidences measured by the telescopes. Our findings suggested that existing muon telescopes could be used for muon observation of the internal reactor from outside the RPV and CV.

Cosmic-ray muon radiography for reactor core observation

Takamatsu, Kuniyoshi; Takegami, Hiroaki; Ito, Chikara; Suzuki, Keiichi*; Onuma, Hiroshi*; Hino, Ryutaro; Okumura, Tadahiko*

Annals of Nuclear Energy, 78, p.166 - 175, 2015/04

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2014.12.017

In our study, we focused on a nondestructive inspection method by which cosmic-ray muons could be used to observe the internal reactor from outside the RPV and the CV. We conducted an observation test on the HTTR to evaluate the applicability of the method to the internal visualization of a reactor. We also analytically evaluated the resolution of existing muon telescopes to assess their suitability for the HTTR observation, and were able to detect the major structures of the HTTR based on the distribution of the surface densities calculated from the coincidences measured by the telescopes. Our findings suggested that existing muon telescopes could be used for muon observation of the internal reactor from outside the RPV and CV.

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.