Spontaneous stabilization of HTGRs without reactor scram and core cooling—Safety demonstration tests using the HTTR: Loss of reactivity control and core cooling

Abstract

It is well known that a High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) has superior safety characteristics; for example, an HTGR has a self-control system that uses only physical phenomena against various accidents. Moreover, the large heat capacity and low power density of the core result in very slow temperature transients. Therefore, an HTGR serves inherently safety features against loss of core cooling accidents such as the Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. (TEPCO)’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) disaster. Herein we would like to demonstrate the inherent safety features using the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR). The HTTR is the first HTGR in Japan with a thermal power of 30MW and a maximum reactor outlet coolant temperature of 950°C; it was built at the Oarai Research and Development Center of Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA). In this study, an all-gas-circulator trip test was analyzed as a loss of forced cooling (LOFC) test with an initial reactor power of 9MW to demonstrate LOFC accidents. The analytical results indicate that reactor power decreases from 9MW to 0MW owing to the negative reactivity feedback effect of the core, even if the reactor shutdown system is not activated. The total reactivity decreases for 2–3h and then gradually increases in proportion to xenon reactivity; therefore, the HTTR achieves recritical after an elapsed time of 6–7h, which is different from the elapsed time at reactor power peak occurrence. After the reactor power peak occurs, the total reactivity oscillates several times because of the negative reactivity feedback effect and gradually decreases to zero. Moreover, the new conclusions are as follows: the greater the amount of residual heat removed from the reactor core, the larger the stable reactor power after recriticality owing to the heat balance of the reactor system. The minimum reactor power and the reactor power peak occurrence are affected by the neutron source. The greater the strength of the neutron source, the larger the minimum reactor power.