A pressure vessel external cooling system for floating nuclear power plants

Abstract

The invention discloses an external cooling system for a pressure vessel used in a floating nuclear power plant, which belongs to the technical field of nuclear reactor engineering and includes a containment vessel, a pressure vessel, a liquid gallium collection box, a heat pipe, a cooling cabin and a gallium storage box; the containment vessel is arranged in the sea environment, the containment vessel has a containment chamber; the pressure vessel and the liquid gallium collection tank are arranged up and down, and are located in the containment chamber of the containment vessel; one end of the heat pipe is inserted in the liquid gallium collection box, and the other end is arranged outside the liquid gallium collection box; The gallium tank is located in the containment chamber of the containment vessel; the gallium storage tank communicates with the liquid gallium collection tank through the liquid gallium release valve; the cooling cabin is set at the lower end of the containment vessel and is located below the sea level in the sea environment. The invention does not face the risk of failure of the external cooling of the reactor vessel due to the loss of the heat sink, does not generate a large amount of steam inside the containment, avoids the problems of flow channel blockage and containment overpressure, and has the advantages of safety, stability and long-term operation.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of nuclear reactor engineering, and in particular relates to an external cooling system for a pressure vessel of a floating nuclear power plant which uses liquid gallium as an intermediate heat transfer medium and heat pipes to transfer heat. Background technique [0002] Floating nuclear power plants can be used for power generation, seawater desalination, and can meet special needs such as regional power supply, offshore oil exploitation, and isolated islands. Improving the safety of floating nuclear power plants (or mitigating assumed severe accidents) is the key to the design of floating nuclear power plants. Melt in-retention (IVR) is one of the key strategies for mitigating presumed severe accidents in many advanced reactor designs. The success of IVR relies heavily on external reactor vessel cooling (ERVC), through which decay heat is removed from the molten core in the lower head of the reactor vesse...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

This leads to three defects in traditional ERVC: (1) A large amount of steam is generated in the flow channel, and the outlet of the flow channel is blocked, and the heat flux at the equator of the lower head exceeds the critical heat flux limit, which in turn causes the risk of molten material melting through the pressure vessel

(2) A large amount of steam is generated in the containment vessel, which may cause overpressure of the containment vessel and threaten the integrity of the containment vessel

(3) The traditional ERVC cannot run for a long time, because the pit water keeps heating up. When the temperature is high enough, the traditional ERVC will lose its cooling capacity

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