Chapter 4 - Heat pipe application driven fission nuclear power plant

Abstract

As the global population grows, so will the demand for energy to ensure standards of living, health and life expectancy, literacy, opportunity, etc. To cope with this energy demand, nuclear energy, which is believed to be sustainable, clean, and safe, has been extensively advocated. To enhance the future role of nuclear energy systems, a generation of innovative nuclear energy systems, known as Generation IV, has been proposed to replace the current Gen II/III reactors and Gen III+ reactors that will be deployed in the near future. A new concept involving the use of heat pipes as control devices for nuclear reactors will be investigated in this chapter. Heat pipes are particularly suitable for small reactors as the demand for heat removal is significantly less than commercial nuclear power plants, and passive and reliable heat removal is required. The primary purpose of the heat pipe will be to change the amount of fuel within a reactor instead of the usual purpose of transferring heat. In conjunction with heat pipes (HPs) in this chapter, we have also included a section on the Directed Reactor Auxiliary Cooling System (DRACS) and presented the scalar analysis for it, in particular in respect to advanced high temperature reactors (AHTRs) and small modular reactors (SMRs) of Generation IV (GEN-IV) such as molten salt reactor is shape of the pebble-bed reactor (PBR). The PBR is a design for a graphite-moderated, gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is a type of very high temperature reactor (VHTR), one of the six classes of nuclear reactors in the Generation IV initiative.