Thermal hydraulic design and analysis of a large lead-cooled reactor with flexible conversion ratio

This thesis contributes to the Flexible Conversion Ratio Fast Reactor Systems Evaluation Project, a part of the Nuclear Cycle Technology and Policy Program funded by the Department of Energy through the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative. The goal of this project is to develop conceptual designs of fast flexible conversion ratio reactors using lead and liquid salt coolants and compare the results with the gas cooled fast reactor developed in an MIT NERI project and the sodium cooled reactor under development at ANL. This thesis is the summary of the design and analysis of the lead-cooled reactor portion of the project. Core designs that fit in the same reactor plant were executed for two limiting conversion ratios: (1) near zero to transmute legacy waste and (2) near unity to operate in a sustainable closed cycle. To reap the benefits of economy of scale, a large power rating of 2400MWt was set as the target thermal power for both reactor designs. In addition, the achievement of inherent reactor shutdown in unprotected accidents (without scram) was set as a desirable goal. The core employs transuranic metallic fuel. The large pool vessel contains four intermediate heat exchangers (IHX) that couple the primary system to an efficient and compact supercritical CO2 power conversion system. To prevent CO2 from entering the core in case of intermediate heat exchanger tube rupture, a dual-free level design for the primary vessel is adopted. Ultimate decay heat removal is accomplished by passive means through an enhanced reactor vessel auxiliary cooling system (RVACS) complemented by a passive secondary cooling system (PSACS).

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Nikiforova, Anna S., S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Neil E. Todreas and Pavel Hejzlar.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/53277

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/53277