High Temperature GasCooled Reactor (HTGR)

ENGR 5301-35 Nuclear Reactor Kinetics & Control Instructor Dr. Wendell C. Bean The Phillip M. Drayer Department of Electrical Engineering Fall 2011

Presented by:- Group E Charanpreet Singh Karandeep Singh Randhawa Zaki Ahmed Abbasi
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Outline
Introduction PC Tran Simulator for HTGR Simulation Results and Diagrams References

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 Peach Bottom (40 MWe) 1967-1974 -First Commercial (U/Thorium Cycle) -Generally Good Performance (75% CF) Fort St. Vrain ( 330 MWe) 1979-1989 (U/Th) -Poor Performance -Mechanical Problems -Decommissioned

History of Gas Reactors in US

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Fort St Vrain

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 First proposed by the Staff of the Power Pile Division of the Clinton Laboratories (known now as Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in 1947 Professor Dr. Rudolf Schulten in Germany also played a role in development during the 1950s The Peach Bottom reactor in the United States was the first HTGR to produce electricity Fort St. Vrain Generating Station was one example of this design that operated as an HTGR from 1979 to 1989
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History

Peach Bottom- First HTGR in US

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 Also called Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) Generation IV reactor concept that uses a graphite-moderated nuclear reactor with a oncethrough uranium fuel cycle Can conceptually have an outlet temperature of 1000C The reactor core can be either a prismatic block or a pebble-bed core The high temperatures enable applications such as process heat or hydrogen production via the thermo-chemical sulfur-iodine cycle.
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High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR)

High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor

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Nuclear reactor design

Neutron moderator- graphite. The reactor core is configured in graphite prismatic blocks or in graphite pebbles Nuclear fuel- Coated fuel particles, such as TRISO fuel particles. Coated fuel particles have fuel kernels, usually made of uranium dioxide, uranium carbide or uranium oxycarbide Coolant- Helium. Helium is an inert gas, so it will generally not chemically react with any material
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 Prototype HTGR generates anywhere from 10 MW for an experimental device up to 600 MW per module for a multi-modular power plant The reactor outlet temperature is in the order of 700C to 1000C The helium pressure is from 3 to 8 Mpa The core helium flow is driven by a circulator and regulated by variable speed There are graphite reflectors in both the annular and central column regions A neutron source is provided for the initial flux
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 Operators pull the control rods to reach criticality Fission energy is transmitted from either prismatic fuel assemblies or TRISO balls to the helium coolant The fuels color changes during its temperature rise Heat transfer is by a combination of conduction, convection and radiation to the containment air By natural convection of the air and use of cooling water at heat exchangers secondary side, heat is removed to the atmosphere
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 After reactor shutdown the Shutdown Cooling System (SCS) is turned on that draws a small amount of the helium gas from the vessel bottom and cooled by a heat exchanger In addition to the rod control, the unit power production can be controlled by Bypass valve of the circulating helium flow to the power conversion unit Helium temperature control Extraction and addition of helium
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 To reach a given power level Bypass is the fastest because it directly returns a portion of circulating helium back to the reactor (without going through the power conversion unit) Temperature control is the slowest because the large core fuel and moderator heat capacity An extraction valve from the circulating system to a tank is for extraction and another valve with pump is for pumping helium into the system A proportional plus integral logic is used to control these valves on the helium pressure
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 Since the power conversion system is open to various designs, a simple pressurized-water heat exchanger is used for now in this prototype as heat sink Super heated steam is generated to drive the turbine/generator High temperature helium can also be used for hydrogen production.

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Naturally Safe Fuel

Shut Off All Cooling Withdraw All Control Rods No Emergency Cooling No Operator Action

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 The graphite has large thermal inertia. The core is composed of graphite, has a high heat capacity and structural stability even at high temperatures The helium coolant is single phase, inert, and has no reactivity effects. The fuel is coated uranium-oxycarbide which permits high burn-up (approaching 200 GWd/t) and retains fission products The high average core-exit temperature of the VHTR (1,000C) permits emissions-free production of process heat
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Safety features and other benefits

Advantages & Disadvantages of Gas Cooled Reactors

High Efficiency (45% -50%) Lower Waste Quantity Higher Safety Margins High Burnup-100 MWD/kg Poor History in US Little Helium Turbine Experience US Technology Water Based Licensing Hurdles due to different designs
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Safety Advantages
Low Power Density Naturally Safe No melt down No significant radiation release in accident Demonstrate with actual test of reactor

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Types of HTGRs
Pebble bed reactors (PBR) The pebble bed reactor (PBR) design consists of fuel in the form of pebbles, stacked together in a cylindrical pressure vessel, like a gum-ball machine Prismatic block reactors (PMR) The prismatic block reactor refers to a prismatic block core configuration, in which hexagonal graphite blocks are stacked to fit in a cylindrical pressure vessel Both reactors may have the fuel stacked in an annulus region with a graphite center spire, depending on the design and desired reactor power

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What is a Pebble Bed Reactor ?

360,000 pebbles in core About 3,000 pebbles handled by FHS each day About 350 discarded daily One pebble discharged every 30 seconds Average pebble cycles through core 10 times Fuel handling most maintenance-intensive part of plant
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TRISO Fuel Particle --Microsphere

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Pebble Bed Advantages

Low excess reactivity-online refueling Homogeneous core (less power peaking) Simple fuel management Potential for higher capacity factors -no annual refueling outages Modularity-smaller unit Faster construction time -modularity Indirect cycle -hydrogen generation Simpler Maintenance strategy-replace vs repair
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AVR in Germany-Pebble Bed

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International Activities Countries with Active HTGR Programs

China -10 MW Pebble Bed -2000 critical Japan -40 MW Prismatic South Africa -400 MW Pebble -2012 Russia -290 MWe-Pu Burner Prismatic 2007 (GA, Framatome, DOE, etc) Netherlands -small industrial Pebble Germany (past) -300 MW Pebble Operated

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Key Technical Challenges

Materials (metals and graphite) Code Compliance Helium Turbine and Compressor Designs Demonstration of Fuel Performance US Infrastructure Knowledge Base Regulatory System

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Technology Bottlenecks
Fuel Performance Balance of Plant Design Components Graphite Containment vs. Confinement Air Ingress/Water Ingress Regulatory Infrastructure

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Simulator-PCTRAN-HTR
PC-based Simulator for High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Version 0.1 (Beta) Developed by Micro-Simulation Technology located at 10 Navajo Court, Montville, New Jersey 07045, USA http://www.microsimtech.com/downloads/do wnload2.asp
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A screenshot of the PCTRAN HTR reactor

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PC-based Simulator For High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR)

PC TRAN HTGR
A prototype PC-based simulator for High Temperature GasCooled Reactor (HTGR) successfully developed by MicroSimulation Technology USA. Using Microsoft Visual Basic language and operates under Windows operating system. The input and output are in Access database and its operation is done by graphic user interface. Reports and plots can be generated by the program and later accessed by user. The run-speed can be used to speed up simulation for 2, 4, 8 up to 64 times. This helps in understanding both the reactor core and the power conversion system.

About the Reactor

This prototype can generate anywhere from 10 MW to 600 MW per module for a multi-modular power plant.

The power production can be controlled by 1) bypass valve of the circulating helium flow to the power conversion unit(fastest way). 2) helium temperature control(slow method). 3) extraction and addition of helium.

Access database files

ListData.mdb It has basic plant data and tells us about the status of control buttons of all initial conditions, heat exchangers, pumps, Trip, malfunctions & gives us a list of initial conditions. BackData.mdb it contains all backtrack conditions. OptData.mdb has tables for a:-TimePlotOut which has output time record interval for PlotData recording. b:- TimeBackOut which has time interval for writing a backtrack record. PlotData.mdb stores all the calculated variables in it. It lists all variable names and their units for plotting. Also it has Actual plot data values in it.

run

Reactivity

Reactor Cavity Cooling System

Heat Exchanger

pump Valve

Run-Time

Initial condition no.

Hx- capacity

Transient time

clock

 P for power control to S for rod control. Code Control :- Run & Freeze. Pumps are started and stopped by pressing the left mouse button when the cursor is on the pump. Valves can be opened to any position from 0-100% . Backtrack- can be used to go back to a previous state of reactor. Position Dmd-The Rod position can be changed from 0-100% by it. Power Dmd- The value of power required at a time can be set here. SCRAM- It causes emergency shutdown of the nuclear reactor by releasing the control rods into reactor core.

Component Operation

Initial Conditions

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To edit basic data

Data values can be put manually as-well : Gas Pressure(MPa) Total Fuel Mass(Kg) Rated Thermal Power(MW) Avg Fuel Temperature(C) He Flow Rate (kg/sec)

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Raising Power to 100%

In order to set reactor to give max power following changes need to be done: Rod position needs to be at 89%(withdrawn). Gas outlet needs to be around 844 C. Coolant needs to be at 250 C. Pump for HX 2nd IN needs to be at 100%. Helium circ pump should be 100%.

For a Rated Power of 50%

In order to set reactor to work at 50% power level following changes need to be done: Rod position needs to be at 88%. Gas outlet needs to be around 639 C. Coolant needs to be at 104 C. Pump for HX 2nd In needs to be at 63%. Helium circ pump should be 51%.

Advantages
Japan and South Africa have been using these simulators for their reactors. All the transient and accident analysis cases are well reproduced in this simulator. This PC-based tool can even be used for demonstration of the gas-cooled reactors unique features and its advantages in efficiency and reliability. Safe characteristic for HTGR can be obtained by it. The fast run function of PCTRAN up to 64 times faster than real-time is valuable in training and analysis. Reports and plots can be generated by the program and later printed by user.

High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR) by Micro Simulation Technology.

Contents
1
2 3 4
Introduction

Simulation

Cases

Click to add Title

Transient Verification Runs

Four Cases were selected for PCTRAN HTR-10 verification from the following paper.
Commissioning and Operation Experience and safety Experiments on HTR-10 3rd International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology. October 1-4, 2006,Johannesburg, South Africa.

Transient Verification Runs

Model is brought to Critical. Maintained near 100%Power. Operating Variables are: Toutlet = 703.7C Tinlet = 252.1 C He Circulation flow = 4.28 kg/sec Core Power = 10 MW He Pressure = 2.96 MPa

Design Parameters

Text

Text

Case I: He Circulator Trip ATWS Test

Reactor Started at 100% power steady state. Switch from P to S. Rod Speed set to zero to prevent its movement. The He Circulator is tripped without incurring a reactor scram. The transient key plots are follows:

Case I: He Circulator Trip ATWS

Case I: He Circulator Trip ATWS

Case I: He Circulator Trip ATWS

More Cases
A steady state at 30% power is created for benchmark of three operational transients.
Rod Withdrawal from 30% power. Varying Helium Circulation Rate. Feed water Alterations.

References
[1] Operation and Control Simulation of a Modular High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Nuclear Power Plant, Haipeng Li, Xiaojin Huang, and Liangju Zhang , IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, VOL. 55, NO. 4, AUGUST 2008 [2] http://www.microsimtech.com [3] http://www.cti-simulation.com

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