Design Optimization and Analysis of a Fluoride Salt Cooled High Temperature Test Reactor for Accelerated Fuels and Materials Testing and Nonproliferation and Safeguards Evaluations PDF Download

Author: Joshua Glenn Richard
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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Fluoride Salt Cooled High Temperature Reactors (FHRs) are a new reactor concept that have recently garnered interest because of their potential to serve missions and generate revenue from sources beyond those of traditional base-load light water reactor (LWR) designs. This potential is facilitated by high-temperature, atmospheric-pressure operation enabled by the incorporation of liquid fluoride salt coolants together with solid microparticle TRISO fuel. Since no FHR has been built, an important technology development step is the design, construction, and operation of a FHR test reactor (FHTR). The FHTR's strategic goals cannot be satisfied using small-scale experiments or test loops: (1) develop the safety and licensing basis for a commercial plant; (2) demonstrate technological viability and provide operational and maintenance experience; and (3) test alternative fuels, fluoride salt coolants, and structures in an actual reactor configuration. The goals of the FHTR support the development of the commercial FHR, but are different. The programmatic goals for the FHTR drive the specification of the technical design goals: (1) capability to switch between any one of various potential liquid fluoride salt coolants; (2) provide an irradiation facility for accelerated fuels and materials testing. The first stage of the present work included an exploration and characterization of the available design space for an FHTR. Many different core, reflector, and assembly designs were evaluated to determine configurations that possessed acceptable performance while satisfying all design constraints. This work resulted in a novel prismatic block assembly design termed Fuel Inside Radial Moderator (FIRM), which leverages spatial selfshielding of the fuel microparticles to increase core reactivity by ~10,000 pcm relative to a traditional prismatic block design, enabling operation with any of the proposed liquid fluoride salt coolants. This stage of work served to focus the search space for the application of formal optimization algorithms to further improve the feasible design. The second stage of the present work involved the development of a methodology to perform full-core optimization of the feasible FHTR design and its implementation into usable software. The OpenFRO (Open source Framework for Reactor Optimization) code implements the Efficient Global Optimization (EGO) surrogate-based optimization framework, which has been successfully applied to aerospace and automotive engineering optimization problems in the past. OpenFRO extends the EGO framework to full-core reactor optimization in the presence of uncertainty, enabling an effective, automated, and efficient approach for earlystage reactor design. OpenFRO's EGO implementation imposes minimal computational overhead while reducing the number of required high-fidelity simulations for optimization by 96%. The final stage of the present work involved the identification and analysis of the optimal design of the FHTR. The optimal design was selected based on its capability to provide the best performance across potential salt coolants and power levels. The optimal design achieved irradiation position fluxes 90%-130% greater than the feasible design initially identified, while satisfying all safety and performance constraints.

Author: Rebecca Rose Romatoski
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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An important Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR) development step is to design, build, and operate a test reactor. Through a literature review, liquid-salt coolant thermophysical properties have been recommended along with their uncertainties of 2-20%. This study tackles determining the effects of these high uncertainties by proposing a newly developed methodology to incorporate uncertainty propagation in a thermal-hydraulic safety analysis for test reactor licensing. A hot channel model, Monte Carlo statistical sampling uncertainty propagation, and limiting safety systems settings (LSSS) approach are uniquely combined to ensure sufficient margin to fuel and material thermal limits during steady-state operation and to incorporate margin for high uncertainty inputs. The method calculates LSSS parameters to define safe operation. The methodology has been applied to two test reactors currently considered, the Chinese TMSR-SF1 pebble bed design and MIT's Transportable FHR prismatic core design; two candidate coolants, flibe (LiF-BeF2) and nafzirf (NaF-ZrF4); and forced flow and natural circulation conditions to compare operating regions and LSSS power (maximum power not exceeding any thermal limits). The calculated operating region accounts for uncertainty (2 [sigma]) with LSSS power (MW) for forced flow of 25.37±0.72, 22.56±1.15, 21.28±1.48, and 11.32±1.35 for pebble flibe, pebble nafzirf, prismatic flibe, and prismatic nafzirf, respectively. The pebble bed has superior heat transfer with an operating region reduced ~10% less when switching coolants and ~50% smaller uncertainty than the prismatic. The maximum fuel temperature constrains the pebble bed while the maximum coolant temperature constrains the prismatic due to different dominant heat transfer modes. Sensitivity analysis revealed 1) thermal conductivity and thus conductive heat transfer dominates in the prismatic design while convection is superior in the pebble bed, and 2) the impact of thermophysical property uncertainties are ranked in the following order: thermal conductivity, heat capacity, density, and lastly viscosity. Broadly, the methodology developed incorporates uncertainty propagation that can be used to evaluate parametric uncertainties to satisfy guidelines for non-power reactor licensing applications, and method application shows the pebble bed is more attractive for thermal-hydraulic safety. Although the method was developed and evaluated for coolant property uncertainties for FHR, it is readily applicable for any parameters of interest.

Author:
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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This report provides guidance on the component testing necessary during the next phase of fluoride salt-cooled high temperature reactor (FHR) development. In particular, the report identifies and describes the reactor component performance and reliability requirements, provides an overview of what information is necessary to provide assurance that components will adequately achieve the requirements, and then provides guidance on how the required performance information can efficiently be obtained. The report includes a system description of a representative test scale FHR reactor. The reactor parameters presented in this report should only be considered as placeholder values until an FHR test scale reactor design is completed. The report focus is bounded at the interface between and the reactor primary coolant salt and the fuel and the gas supply and return to the Brayton cycle power conversion system. The analysis is limited to component level testing and does not address system level testing issues. Further, the report is oriented as a bottom-up testing requirements analysis as opposed to a having a top-down facility description focus.

Author:
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Effective high-temperature thermal energy exchange and delivery at temperatures over 600°C has the potential of significant impact by reducing both the capital and operating cost of energy conversion and transport systems. It is one of the key technologies necessary for efficient hydrogen production and could potentially enhance efficiencies of high-temperature solar systems. Today, there are no standard commercially available high-performance heat transfer fluids above 600°C. High pressures associated with water and gaseous coolants (such as helium) at elevated temperatures impose limiting design conditions for the materials in most energy systems. Liquid salts offer high-temperature capabilities at low vapor pressures, good heat transport properties, and reasonable costs and are therefore leading candidate fluids for next-generation energy production. Liquid-fluoride-salt-cooled, graphite-moderated reactors, referred to as Fluoride Salt Reactors (FHRs), are specifically designed to exploit the excellent heat transfer properties of liquid fluoride salts while maximizing their thermal efficiency and minimizing cost. The FHR s outstanding heat transfer properties, combined with its fully passive safety, make this reactor the most technologically desirable nuclear power reactor class for next-generation energy production. Multiple FHR designs are presently being considered. These range from the Pebble Bed Advanced High Temperature Reactor (PB-AHTR) [1] design originally developed by UC-Berkeley to the Small Advanced High-Temperature Reactor (SmAHTR) and the large scale FHR both being developed at ORNL [2]. The value of high-temperature, molten-salt-cooled reactors is also recognized internationally, and Czechoslovakia, France, India, and China all have salt-cooled reactor development under way. The liquid salt experiment presently being developed uses the PB-AHTR as its focus. One core design of the PB-AHTR features multiple 20 cm diameter, 3.2 m long fuel channels with 3 cm diameter graphite-based fuel pebbles slowly circulating up through the core. Molten salt coolant (FLiBe) at 700°C flows concurrently (at significantly higher velocity) with the pebbles and is used to remove heat generated in the reactor core (approximately 1280 W/pebble), and supply it to a power conversion system. Refueling equipment continuously sorts spent fuel pebbles and replaces spent or damaged pebbles with fresh fuel. By combining greater or fewer numbers of pebble channel assemblies, multiple reactor designs with varying power levels can be offered. The PB-AHTR design is discussed in detail in Reference [1] and is shown schematically in Fig. 1. Fig. 1. PB-AHTR concept (drawing taken from Peterson et al., Design and Development of the Modular PB-AHTR Proceedings of ICApp 08). Pebble behavior within the core is a key issue in proving the viability of this concept. This includes understanding the behavior of the pebbles thermally, hydraulically, and mechanically (quantifying pebble wear characteristics, flow channel wear, etc). The experiment being developed is an initial step in characterizing the pebble behavior under realistic PB-AHTR operating conditions. It focuses on thermal and hydraulic behavior of a static pebble bed using a convective salt loop to provide prototypic fluid conditions to the bed, and a unique inductive heating technique to provide prototypic heating in the pebbles. The facility design is sufficiently versatile to allow a variety of other experimentation to be performed in the future. The facility can accommodate testing of scaled reactor components or sub-components such as flow diodes, salt-to-salt heat exchangers, and improved pump designs as well as testing of refueling equipment, high temperature instrumentation, and other reactor core designs.

Author:
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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The fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) demonstration reactor (DR) is a concept for a salt-cooled reactor with 100 megawatts of thermal output (MWt). It would use tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel within prismatic graphite blocks. FLiBe (2 LiF-BeF2) is the reference primary coolant. The FHR DR is designed to be small, simple, and affordable. Development of the FHR DR is a necessary intermediate step to enable near-term commercial FHRs. Lower risk technologies are purposely included in the initial FHR DR design to ensure that the reactor can be built, licensed, and operated within an acceptable budget and schedule. These technologies include TRISO particle fuel, replaceable core structural material, the use of that same material for the primary and intermediate loops, and tube-and-shell primary-to-intermediate heat exchangers. Several preconceptual and conceptual design efforts that have been conducted on FHR concepts bear a significant influence on the FHR DR design. Specific designs include the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) advanced high-temperature reactor (AHTR) with 3400/1500 MWt/megawatts of electric output (MWe), as well as a 125 MWt small modular AHTR (SmAHTR) from ORNL. Other important examples are the Mk1 pebble bed FHR (PB-FHR) concept from the University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and an FHR test reactor design developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The MIT FHR test reactor is based on a prismatic fuel platform and is directly relevant to the present FHR DR design effort. These FHR concepts are based on reasonable assumptions for credible commercial prototypes. The FHR DR concept also directly benefits from the operating experience of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE), as well as the detailed design efforts for a large molten salt reactor concept and its breeder variant, the Molten Salt Breeder Reactor. The FHR DR technology is most representative of the 3400 MWt AHTR concept, and it will demonstrate key operational features of that design. The FHR DR will be closely scaled to the SmAHTR concept in power and flows, so any technologies demonstrated will be directly applicable to a reactor concept of that size. The FHR DR is not a commercial prototype design, but rather a DR that serves a cost and risk mitigation function for a later commercial prototype. It is expected to have a limited operational lifetime compared to a commercial plant. It is designed to be a low-cost reactor compared to more mature advanced prototype DRs. A primary reason to build the FHR DR is to learn about salt reactor technologies and demonstrate solutions to remaining technical gaps.

Author: Matthew Joseph Minck
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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The fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR) combines high-temperature coated-particle fuel with a high-temperature salt coolant for a reactor with unique market and safety characteristics. This combination can eliminate large-scale radionuclide releases by avoiding major fuel failure during a catastrophic Beyond Design Basis Accident (BDBA). The high-temperature core contains liquid salt coolant surrounded by a liquid salt buffer; these salts limit core heatup while decay heat drops. The vessel insulation is designed to fail during a BDBA. The silo contains a frozen BDBA salt designed to melt and surround the reactor vessel during a major accident to accelerate heat transfer from the vessel. These features provide the required temperature gradient to drive decay heat from core to the vessel wall and to the environment below fuel failure temperatures. A 1047 MWth FHR was modeled using the STAR-CCM+ computational fluid dynamics package. Peak temperatures and heat transfer phenomena were calculated, focusing on feasibility of melting the BDBA salt that improves heat transfer from vessel to silo. A simplified wavelength-independent radiation model was examined to approximate the heat transfer capability with radiation heat transfer. The FHR BDBA system kept peak temperatures below the fuel failure point in all cases. Reducing the reactor vessel-silo gap size minimized the time to melt the BDBA salt. Radiation heat transfer is a dominant factor in the high-temperature accident sequence. It keeps peak fuel temperatures hundreds of degrees lower than with convection and conduction only; it makes higher core powers feasible. The FHR's atmospheric pressure design allows a thin reactor vessel, ensuring the high accident temperatures reach the vessel's outer surface, creating a large temperature difference from the vessel to the frozen salt. This greatly accelerates the heat transfer over current reactor designs with thick, relatively cool accident outer vessel temperatures. The frozen BDBA salt in the FHR places a limit on the upper temperature at the vessel outer boundary for significant time; it is a substantial heat sink for the accident duration. Finally, surrounding the FHR vessel, the convection of hot air, and circulating salt later in the accident, preferentially transports heat upward in the FHR; this provides a conduction path through the concrete silo to the atmosphere above the FHR.

Author: Todd Allen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Molten salt cooled reactors
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 63

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In 2011 the U.S. Department of Energy through its Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) awarded a 3- year integrated research project (IRP) to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and its partners at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) and the University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW). The IRP included Westinghouse Electric Company and an advisory panel chaired by Regis Matzie that provided advice as the project progressed. The first sentence of the proposal stated the goals: The objective of this Integrated Research Project (IRP) is to develop a path forward to a commercially viable salt-cooled solid-fuel high-temperature reactor with superior economic, safety, waste, nonproliferation, and physical security characteristics compared to light-water reactors. This report summarizes major results of this research.

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Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Fluoride salt-cooled High-temperature Reactors (FHRs) are an emerging reactor class with potentially advantageous performance characteristics, and fully passive safety. This roadmap describes the principal remaining FHR technology challenges and the development path needed to address the challenges. This roadmap also provides an integrated overview of the current status of the broad set of technologies necessary to design, evaluate, license, construct, operate, and maintain FHRs. First-generation FHRs will not require any technology breakthroughs, but do require significant concept development, system integration, and technology maturation. FHRs are currently entering early phase engineering development. As such, this roadmap is not as technically detailed or specific as would be the case for a more mature reactor class. The higher cost of fuel and coolant, the lack of an approved licensing framework, the lack of qualified, salt-compatible structural materials, and the potential for tritium release into the environment are the most obvious issues that remain to be resolved.

Author: Ruaridh R. Macdonald
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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In this work we describe a preliminary design for a transportable fluoride salt cooled high temperature reactor (TFHR) intended for use as a variable output heat and electricity source for off-grid locations. The goals of the project were to design an economic reactor: a) Sized for the average load of a site but able to increase output to provide peaking power. b) With safety, security and safeguard requirements met by the choice of materials and form as opposed to relying on security forces and infrastructure. Powering remote sites such as mining stations, military bases, communities or even large ships could be a significant long term market for small nuclear reactors. However, the design basis is very different. The increased cost of transporting goods to the site and maintaining a large population of specialists means a reactor must be simpler to operate and able to defend itself against attackers and proliferators without a large security force. On the other hand, the increased cost of electricity in remote places means more can be spent to meet these goals. This report discusses these issues of operating at a remote site and a general strategy for meeting the resulting design criteria. The TFHR design puts these decisions into practice. The TFHR described is a 125MWth, thermal spectrum reactor using SiC-matrix coated particle fuel which can achieve single batch discharge burnups of up to 70MWd/HMkg over an 8 year cycle. Higher burnups are possible for larger cores. The neutronics properties of SiC-matrix coated particle fuel are explored in detail and various means by which they can be incorporated into a reactor are detailed. The TFHR uses a nuclear air Brayton combined cycle (NACC) for electricity generation, adapted from an off the shelf GE aero-derivative gas turbine. The NACC incorporates a combustible fuel injection port between the high and low pressure turbines which can be used to raise the temperature of the working fluid and boost the power extracted from the system by up to 50%. This increase of electric output occurs without changing the power drawn drawn from the reactor, avoiding any transients. The ability to peak the power output removes the need for a second power system or for the reactor to be sized for the maximum power demand, which is a significant cost saving. However, using an air Brayton cycle requires a high temperature reactor. A TFHR is a better match for this purpose than a gas cooled reactor as it operates at atmospheric pressure, making it easier to meet the security goals described above.