Pre-Conceptual Design of the Research High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor TeResa for Non-Electrical Applications

Eleonora Skrzypek,Dominik Muszyński,Maciej Skrzypek,Mariusz P Dąbrowski,Piotr Darnowski,Agnieszka Boettcher,Janusz Malesa

doi:10.3390/en15062084

Eleonora Skrzypek, Dominik Muszyński + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en15062084

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Mar 12, 2022
Citations: 7	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: National Centre for Nuclear Research

Abstract

In line with Polish national activities and research programs investigating non-electrical-reactor use, the national GOSPOSTRATEG-HTR project was launched, aiming at the development of a novel pre-conceptual design of a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR). The 40 MWth research reactor would serve as a technology demonstrator for future industrial purposes. In the paper, the proposal of an established thermal-hydraulic and neutronic core design is presented as a result of the National Centre for Nuclear Research team studies, in the scope of the project, including the areas of fluid mechanics, heat exchange and reactor neutronic core design support analyses. The undertaken analyses were confirmed by the series of code investigations involving integral thermal-hydraulic (MELCOR (Sandia National Laboratories, USA), CATHARE (CEA, France)), neutronic (Serpent (VTT, Finland), MCB (AGH University’s Department of Nuclear Energy, Poland)), Computational Fluid Dynamics (ANSYS Fluent (ANSYS, USA)) and others. The calculations performed within the preliminary safety analysis on the pre-concept showed its compliance with international safety standards for the normal operation and Design Basis Accident sequences.

Highlights

As a consequence of the ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2015 by the EuropeanUnion and other countries, responsible for 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a set of actions were undertaken in the EU member countries, including Poland, aiming at limiting an increase in the global average temperature by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing the speed of climate change [1]
The synthesis of the resulting calculations completed under the process methodology, especially at the beginning of life (BOL)
The thermal-hydraulic analyses executed on the developed MELCOR 2.2 model covered investigations of the potential Design Basis Accidents (DBA)—the Depressurized Loss of Forced Cooling (DLOFC) accident and Pressurized Loss of Forced Cooling (PLOFC), which were performed with the Best Estimate (BE) assumptions

Summary

Introduction

As a consequence of the ratification of the Paris Agreement in 2015 by the EuropeanUnion and other countries, responsible for 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions, a set of actions were undertaken in the EU member countries, including Poland, aiming at limiting an increase in the global average temperature by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and slowing the speed of climate change [1]. The Glasgow Climate Pact [3], which is an agreement reached at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021, is a climate deal that presses for even more urgent emission cuts This direction of the transformation of the energy sources market is the main focus of the polish Ministry of Climate and Environment (MKiŚ) in establishing the policies, alongside supervised research and development (R&D) programs. The Minister accepted this report, further steps were taken, and as a result, HTGR technology was included in some strategic documents in Poland related to the economy, development and into energy policy framework. The high-temperature nuclear technology, as a possible future heat source for industry and cogeneration, is included in the in Polish Nuclear Power Program [6], Energy policy of Poland till 2040 [7], National Energy and Climate Plan for the years 2021–2030 [8], and National Smart Specializations [9,10].

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