Conceptual design and analysis of a multipurpose micro nuclear reactor power source

Sun, Hedong; wang, Chenglong; Ma, Pan; Liu, Xiao; Tian, Wenxi; Qiu, Suizheng; Su, Guanghui

doi:10.1016/j.anucene.2018.07.025

Cited by 58 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The first term ρ ( t ) in Equation is the external reactivity, which presents the reactivity provided by the reactivity‐control drums ( ρ D ( t )) and various kinds of material (∑ ρ i ( t )). The term, ∑ ρ i ( t ), contains the Doppler and temperature reactivity feedbacks of matrix

ρ_{FUEL} = 0.02886 - 1.51289 \times T_{FUEL}

where T FUEL is the fuel unit average temperature.…”

Section: Numerical Model and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The drum reactivity is changed with the relative position ( ϕ ) between neutron absorber material (B 4 C) and fuel. And the correlation between them from the MCNP calculation

\begin{matrix} lefttrue \\ ρ_{D} = 2.6278 \times 10^{- 13} ϕ^{6} - 1.6286 \times 10^{- 10} ϕ^{5} + 3.5994 \times 10^{- 8} ϕ^{4} - 2.9367 \times 10^{- 6} ϕ^{3} \\ + 8.8184 \times 10^{- 6} ϕ^{2} - 6.0372 \times 10^{- 4} ϕ \end{matrix}

…”

Section: Numerical Model and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And the correlation between them from the MCNP calculation. 16 ρ D ¼ 2:6278 × 10 −13 ϕ 6 − 1:6286 × 10 −10 ϕ 5 þ3:5994 Â 10 −8 ϕ 4 − 2:9367 × 10 −6 ϕ 3 þ8:8184 × 10 −6 ϕ 2 − 6:0372 × 10 −4 ϕ (4)…”

Section: Reactor Kineticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermal‐hydraulic design features of a micronuclear reactor power source applied for multipurpose

et al. 2019

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Summary Microheat pipe cooled reactor power source (HRP) designed for space or underwater vehicles meets the future demands, such as safer structure, longer operating time, and fewer mechanical moving parts. In this paper, potassium heat pipe cooled reactor power source system which generates 50 kWe electricity is proposed. The reactor core using uranium nitride fuel is cooled by 37 potassium high‐temperature heat pipes. The shields are designed as tungsten and water, and reactor reactivity is controlled by control drums. The thermoelectric generator (TEG) consists of thermoelectric conversion units and seawater cooler. The thermoelectric conversion units convert thermal energy to electric energy through the high‐performance thermoelectric material. A code applied for designing and analyzing the reactor power system is developed. It consists of multichannel reactor core model, heat pipe model using thermal resistance network, thermoelectric conversion, and thermal conductivity model. Then, the sensitivity analysis is performed on two key parameters including the length of the heat pipe condensation section and the cold junction temperature of the TE cell. Meanwhile, the steady‐state calculations are conducted. Results show that the maximum fuel temperature is 938 K located in the center of reactor core and the outlet temperature of coolant reaches 316 K. Both of them are within the limitation. It is concluded that the preliminary design of HPR design is reasonable and reliable. The designed residual heat removal system has sufficient safety margin to release the decay heat of the reactor. This research provides valuable analysis for the application of micronuclear power source.

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ρ_{FUEL} = 0.02886 - 1.51289 \times T_{FUEL}

where T FUEL is the fuel unit average temperature.…”

Section: Numerical Model and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The drum reactivity is changed with the relative position ( ϕ ) between neutron absorber material (B 4 C) and fuel. And the correlation between them from the MCNP calculation

\begin{matrix} lefttrue \\ ρ_{D} = 2.6278 \times 10^{- 13} ϕ^{6} - 1.6286 \times 10^{- 10} ϕ^{5} + 3.5994 \times 10^{- 8} ϕ^{4} - 2.9367 \times 10^{- 6} ϕ^{3} \\ + 8.8184 \times 10^{- 6} ϕ^{2} - 6.0372 \times 10^{- 4} ϕ \end{matrix}

…”

Section: Numerical Model and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Thermal‐hydraulic design features of a micronuclear reactor power source applied for multipurpose

et al. 2019

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“…To meet the key demands of deep space exploration, the Xi'an Jiaotong University proposed a series of static nuclear reactors called the nuclear static thermoelectric reactor (NUSTER), with a service life of longer than 10 years and a wide range of applications . NUSTER‐10 is an innovatively designed reactor with an electrical power output of 10 kW.…”

Section: Static Nuclear Reactor Concept Design and Theoretical Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental investigations on start‐up performance of static nuclear reactor thermal prototype

et al. 2020

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Summary Nuclear power is most suited to satisfy the energy demands of future deep space exploration. In this paper, we propose a static nuclear reactor (the nuclear static thermoelectric reactor [NUSTER]), which offers the advantages of superior modularization, simplification, a fully static state, and passive operation. Based on the conceptual design of a static nuclear reactor, an electrical heating principle prototype was designed and fabricated to validate the feasibility of the fully static passive energy conversion concept. Skutterudite thermoelectric generators (TEGs) were used for static energy conversion, and potassium heat pipes were employed for passive heat transfer. The system start‐up performance, restart performance, and thermoelectric performance were investigated using the thermal principle prototype. We proposed a new approach to analyze the heat pipe start‐up process based on the heat transfer performance. The experimental results indicated that the restart process can be used to reduce the start‐up time, because the low heat flux stage is avoided. During the start‐up process, the TEGs hot side heat flux and temperature difference were gradually established, and the TEGs open circuit voltage and power density gradually increased. A maximum open circuit voltage and power density of 38.2 V and 0.92 W/cm2, respectively, were achieved when the TEGs temperature difference reached 575°C. The high performance of the thermal principle prototype demonstrated the feasibility of the NUSTER conceptual design, and the experimental data can serve as a valuable reference for optimization of static reactor designs.

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“…As one of the most efficient heat transport devices, heat pipe has the advantage of transporting large quantities of heat through a small cross-sectional area over a considerable distance with no additional power input, and is widely applied in space, underwater, and ground nuclear reactor concepts [1][2][3][4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and verification of ultra-high temperature lithium heat pipe based experimental facility

et al. 2022

THERM SCI

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Lithium heat pipe has broad applications in heat pipe cooled reactors and hypersonic vehicles due to its ultra-high working temperature which is around 1700 K. In this paper, a lithium heat pipe based experimental facility has been designed to test the heat transfer performance of the lithium heat pipe. A simplified mathematical model of heat pipe has been implemented into a CFD approach, which is used to verify the design of lithium heat pipe and its experimental facility. Results showed that the CFD approach is in good agreements with some well-known existing models and experimental data, and deviation between the results is within 5% range. The adjustment range of mixed gas thermal resistance and cooling water flow rate was obtained by analyzing the effects of different cooling conditions on the performance of the experimental facility. It is necessary to ensure the cooling water flow rate is above 0.11l/h to prevent water boiling when the heating power is10kW around, and the optimal proportion of helium is 70% -90%.The operation characteristics of the lithium heat pipe under unsteady state with varying heating power were simulated numerically. The results show that the proportion of helium must be less than 60% for normal operation of the lithium heat pipe. This work provides a reference and numerical verification for the design of lithium heat pipe based experimental facility, which can be used to reveal the heat transfer mechanisms of the lithium heat pipe during the experiment.

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Conceptual design and analysis of a multipurpose micro nuclear reactor power source

Cited by 58 publications

References 10 publications

Thermal‐hydraulic design features of a micronuclear reactor power source applied for multipurpose

Thermal‐hydraulic design features of a micronuclear reactor power source applied for multipurpose

Experimental investigations on start‐up performance of static nuclear reactor thermal prototype

Design and verification of ultra-high temperature lithium heat pipe based experimental facility

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