Development of a Passive Reactor Shutdown Device to Prevent Core Disruptive Accidents in Fast Reactors: A Study on Device Specifications

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  • Morita, Koji
    Department of Applied Quantum Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University
  • Liu, Wei
    Department of Applied Quantum Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University
  • Arima, Tatsumi
    Department of Applied Quantum Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University
  • Arita, Yuji
    Research Institute of Nuclear Engineering, University of Fukui
  • Sato, Isamu
    Department of Nuclear Safety Engineering and Cooperative Major in Nuclear Energy, Tokyo City University
  • Matsuura, Haruaki
    Department of Nuclear Safety Engineering and Cooperative Major in Nuclear Energy, Tokyo City University
  • Sekio, Yoshihiro
    Oarai Research and Development Institute, Japan Atomic Energy Agency
  • Sagara, Hiroshi
    Laboratory for Zero-Carbon Energy, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology
  • Kawashima, Masatoshi
    Laboratory for Zero-Carbon Energy, Institute of Innovative Research, Tokyo Institute of Technology

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Description

A new subassembly type passive reactor shutdown device is proposed to expand the diversity and robustness of core disruptive accident prevention measures for sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs). The device contains pins with a fuel material that is in a solid state during normal operation but melts and fluidizes during an unprotected loss of flow (ULOF) or unprotected transient overpower (UTOP) accident. By rapidly transferring the liquefied device fuel into the lower plenum region of the pins via gravitation alone, the device passively provides high negative reactivity to the core. This study evaluated the nuclear and thermal properties of the device subassembly with metallic fuel to determine the device specifications for proper device operation during ULOF and UTOP accidents. The results of the transient analysis of the ULOF initiating phase in a 750-MWel-class mixed-oxide-fueled SFR core confirmed that a conventional homogeneous core maintains stable cooling of the core before coolant boiling in the driver fuel subassemblies. In contrast, the negative reactivity required to terminate the event by device operation was slightly higher in the low sodium void reactivity core than in the conventional homogeneous core.

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Details 詳細情報について

  • CRID
    1050863329656967296
  • NII Book ID
    AA12720749
  • ISSN
    23328975
    23328983
  • HANDLE
    2324/7174404
  • Text Lang
    en
  • Article Type
    journal article
  • Data Source
    • IRDB

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