The Evaluation of the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Safety to Fulfill the Requirement of the Next Generation Nuclear

Abstract

High temperature gas cooled reactor (HTGR) has been considered to be the most promising option to meet energy demands in the future. It has also been selected as the next generation nuclear plant. The primary safety requirement of the next generation nuclear plant design is to limit radioactive material releases to practically eliminate the need for public evacuation or sheltering beyond the exclusion area boundary. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the safety design of HTGRs in order to fulfill the requirement of the next generation nuclear plant. To achieve this objective, inherent safety features, fundamental safety functions, and confinement functions realized into the design of HTGRs are comprehensively evaluated. It is found that design provisions of HTGRs can fulfill the intention of keeping radionuclides at their original sources. The layers of the coated fuel particles are very robust to retain nuclear fission products for all foreseeable reactivity events. There will be no possibility of radioactive materials to be released even though related safety systems and operator intervention are not involved in the recovery actions. This design has complied with the requirement of the next generation nuclear plant, which is to practically eliminate the need for public evacuation or sheltering beyond the exclusion area boundary.Keywords: High temperature gas cooled reactor, inherent safety features, fundamental safety functions, confinement functions, next generation nuclear plant