Abstract
A UK National Thermal-Hydraulics Facility (NTHF) dedicated to supporting new reactor and other relevant business is being developed, one of the purposes being to deliver on the government’s carbon emission reduction commitments. The facility site is foreseen to be at Menai Science Park on the isle of Anglesey in North Wales, a region expected to see significant low carbon energy deployment in coming years. The UK NTHF is envisioned to cater for the needs of emerging nuclear in the UK – but also to serve as a hardware platform for international thermal-hydraulics research collaboration. Plans are to construct a platform capable of maintaining several test loops including support for the UK’s on-going, conventional nuclear new build programme as well as Gen-IV systems and associated materials like molten salt and liquid metal coolant media. Motivations are given for NTHF expected capabilities and requirements, which form the basis for its current design and planning state.
Highlights
In its June 2018 Nuclear Sector Deal, the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced its partnership with the Welsh Government to develop a £40 million UK National Thermal-Hydraulics Facility (NTHF) in the North of Wales as an integral part of the Nuclear Innovation Programme (NIP) [1]
The aim is to boost the UK’s nuclear new build programme as well as the development of Small Modular Reactor (SMR) and Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) technology ∗, which implies that NTHF needs to provide a long-term platform that can cater for testing the Thermal-Hydraulic (T/H) properties of any reactor variant being developed for deployment in the UK – or for potential collaboration partners
Consultancy Frazer-Nash worked an initial leg under the contract awarded for Digital Nuclear Reactor Design – Thermal Hydraulics, and UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) took on a leg of activity that culminated in the well-visited NTHF User Engagement Workshops held at M-SParc 13th November 2018 (NUEW18), where stakeholders were given the opportunity to participate and influence future facility design development
Summary
In its June 2018 Nuclear Sector Deal, the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced its partnership with the Welsh Government to develop a £40 million UK National Thermal-Hydraulics Facility (NTHF) in the North of Wales as an integral part of the Nuclear Innovation Programme (NIP) [1]. Outline design planning of the NTHF has been appointed to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
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