Establishment of control technology of the HTTR and future test plan

Abstract

The high-temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR) has carried out several demonstration tests to obtain basic data for the design of a future high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). In addition, for commercial HTGRs, it also should be demonstrated that the HTGR system can supply stable heat to heat utilization system for the long term. To demonstrate the capability of HTGRs of stable heat supply, the operational experience of the HTTR would be useful. The control characteristics of the HTTR are evaluated by the result of the long-term high-temperature operation performed in 2010. As the result, it is confirmed that control technology of the HTTR is enough to achieve the control response with reasonable damped characteristics and the stable normal operation. In addition, a future possibility of the thermal-load fluctuation and lost test is examined. The data would contribute design of heat utilization system because heat utilization system is required to be a non-safety system. For the future HTGR system design, the requirement, method and result of determination of control constants are discussed. The behavior of control system is described with the characteristics of the HTGR during the past test using HTTR. In addition, this paper proposes a future test plan for demonstration of the reactor stability and control technology against thermal load fluctuation for future HTGR with a heat utilization system design.