56 results about "Small modular reactor" patented technology

The invention belongs to the technical field of nuclear power station small module reactor monitoring, and particularly relates to an image monitoring method and system. The method comprises the following steps: receiving original multi-band image data, generating an enhanced image, identifying a preliminary abnormal event, fusing a virtual state of equipment and real-time process data to carry out multi-modal diagnosis, and outputting and packaging a comprehensive safety diagnosis result. The system has the advantages that the problems of image distortion, diagnosis isolation and poor real-time performance in the prior art are solved, and the system has the advantages of improving monitoring accuracy, real-time performance and reliability.

The present invention relates to a nuclear fuel assembly suitable for a small modular reactor (SMR), the nuclear fuel assembly comprising: a spacer grid (110) having 17x17 grid cells; a plurality of fuel rods (120) arranged in the grid cells of the spacer grid (110); guide tubes (130) arranged and fixed in the grid cells of the spacer grid (110); and an upper end fitting (140) and a lower end fitting (150) fixed to the upper end and the lower end of the guide tubes (130), respectively, wherein the guide tubes (130) are characterized in that eight guide tubes are arranged in the main axis directions (Ixx)(Iyy) with respect to the central cell of the spacer grid (110), four guide tubes are arranged in the diagonal direction (Ixy), and sixteen guide tubes are arranged in the non-diagonal directions (Ixxy)(Ixyy).

The embodiment of the invention provides an integrated small reactor passive residual heat removal test heat exchange structure, system and method, and relates to the technical field of nuclear reactor safety system tests. The system aims to solve the problems that in an integrated small reactor passive quay crane test system, split type and pipeline connection are adopted for containment cooling, so that the system is tedious and large in occupied space. And the heat exchange structure is directly connected with the containment simulation device and the cooling water tank through the shared heat exchange part. The test system comprises the test heat exchange structure, and the test method is implemented by adopting the test system. And heat is transferred from the high-temperature containment simulation device to the low-temperature cooling water tank fluid through the heat exchange part. Redundant connecting parts of the common heat exchange part are omitted, and occupied space is reduced. Efficient and rapid heat transfer is achieved, waste heat is discharged in time, safety is guaranteed, and due to the compact structural design, the whole test device is more reasonable in layout, saves space and is convenient to install, debug and maintain.

To provide a small modular reactor cooling device and cooling method.SOLUTION: A small modular reactor cooling device 100 comprises: a reactor vessel 110 in which a coolant circulates along a flow path structure; and a coolant storage unit provided inside the reactor vessel and charged with the coolant inside based on a circulating flow. Therein when a core melted material is generated in the reactor vessel in an event of a serious accident, the coolant storage unit 140 comes into contact with the core melted material via the coolant charged therein and performs a cooling treatment on the core melted material to prevent the core melted material from leaking outside.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

The invention provides a high-temperature liquid lead bismuth alloy energy conversion test system and a test method thereof, belongs to the field of lead-based fast reactor thermotechnical hydraulic safety technology and energy transport performance test, and solves the problem that test research on an energy conversion system of a small modular reactor is still lacked at present. The device comprises a liquid lead-bismuth alloy loop, an argon bottle, a vacuum pump, a water cooling loop and a temperature sensor assembly, a vapor chamber in the liquid lead-bismuth alloy loop exchanges heat with a water cooling plate in the water cooling loop, and the argon bottle and the vacuum pump provide an inert environment for liquid lead-bismuth alloy and control the liquid level of a working medium in the liquid lead-bismuth alloy loop. The heat exchange capacity between the temperature equalizing plate and the water cooling plate under the specific working condition is obtained through the temperature collected by the temperature sensor assembly, the cooling water flow collected by the cooling water flow meter and the lead bismuth flow signal collected by the lead bismuth flow meter, and the energy mass transport characteristic of the liquid lead bismuth alloy loop is obtained. Therefore, the operation rule of the liquid lead-bismuth alloy energy conversion system is mastered.

A power generation system and related method for repowering a fossil-fueled power plant using a carbon-free nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) which replaces the existing fossil plant steam generator which burns fossil fuel such as coal, oil, or natural gas. The existing fossil plant energy conversion system including the turbine-generator (turbogenerator) and auxiliary components of the Rankine cycle is retained. The NSSS may include a small modular reactor (SMR) unit comprising a reactor vessel with nuclear fuel core and steam generator which receives heated primary coolant from the reactor to produce main steam to operate the Rankine cycle. The main steam output by the SMR unit is compressed in a steam compressor to increase its pressure to a level necessary to operate the turbogenerator. The compressor may be operated via a portion of the main steam. An intercooler of the compressor may be used for main steam reheating.

Disclosed is a nuclear fuel assembly suitable for a small modular reactor (SMR), wherein the nuclear fuel assembly includes a spacer grid having 17×17 lattice cells, a plurality of fuel rods, each arranged within an associated lattice cell of the spacer grid, guide tubes, each arranged and fixed within an associated lattice cell of the spacer grid, and a top nozzle and a bottom nozzle fixed to an upper end and a lower end of each guide tube, respectively, wherein, with respect to a center cell of the spacer grid, each of eight guide tubes is arranged in an associated one of principal axis directions Ixx and Iyy, each of four guide tubes in an associated one of on-diagonal directions Ixy, and each of 16 guide tubes in an associated one of off-diagonal directions Ixxy and Ixyy.

This invention relates to a unique cycle for generating electricity at high efficiency and with zero carbon emissions. The cycle's fundamental energy carrier is hydrogen (H2), with H2 undergoing each unit process in the cycle either within water (H2O) molecules or as H2 gas. The heat source driving the cycle, through generation of steam, is a small nuclear reactor known in the industry as a small modular reactor (SMR). This steam's primary purpose is to provide the feed source for H2 production, which occurs in an Underground Coal Gasifier (UCG). The invention's high generation efficiency, accompanied by zero carbon emissions, derive from the UCG's steam / coal reactions and from conversion of the H2 into electricity by solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). These SOFCs produce, as their only waste stream, pure H2O. This H2O is then fed back for steam generation using the SMR's heat, which re-initiates the cycle. All unit processes use proven, commercially available technologies. The invention is directly applicable to any location where significant coal deposits exist.

A system and method for a Scalable Liquid Metal cooled small Modular (SLIMM) reactor wherein the reactor vessel in the upper plenum is conductively coupled to the evaporator sections of the liquid metal heat pipes laid on the outside of the vessel wall.

Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for measuring a neutron beam of ex-vessel of a small modular reactor (SMR). The apparatus for measuring a neutron beam of ex-vessel of a small modular reactor of the present invention comprises: a detector for detecting a current generated by ionization of a neutron beam leaking from a reactor vessel; a preamplifier for receiving a current value of the detector to amplify the current value; a signal processing module for calculating the number and intensity of neutrons leaking in the reactor vessel on the basis of the current value amplified by the preamplifier; and a water level measurement device for transmitting a measurement value obtained by measuring the water level of a medium accommodated in the space between the reactor vessel and a containment vessel to the preamplifier, wherein the preamplifier holds gain value data determined in accordance with the water level of the medium and applies and compensates a gain value in accordance with the measurement value transmitted from the water level measurement device.

This invention discloses a fuel assembly loading and unloading device for small modular reactors (SMRs) in nuclear power plants, comprising an actuator, a drive mechanism, a positioning mechanism, a self-locking mechanism, and a lifting mechanism. The actuator is used to grab or release fuel assemblies; the drive mechanism is connected to the positioning mechanism and is used to drive the actuator to move; the self-locking mechanism is used to lock the actuator when it is in a grabbing or releasing state; the lifting mechanism is movably connected to the positioning mechanism, and the lifting mechanism can drive the self-locking mechanism to lock or unlock the actuator and the drive mechanism. This fuel assembly loading and unloading device for SMRs utilizes a self-locking mechanism to lock the actuator when it is in a grabbing or releasing state, and utilizes the lifting mechanism to drive the self-locking mechanism to lock or unlock the actuator, reliably locking the grabbing state of the fuel assembly and preventing the fuel assembly from falling during hoisting, thus improving the stability and safety of the fuel assembly loading and unloading device during operation.

An integrated energy system (IES) including a power plant is discussed herein. In some examples, the IES may include a power plant configured to generate steam, a Low-Temperature Methane Steam Reforming plant configured to receive at least a portion of the steam from the power plant to react with Methane within the Low-Temperature Methane Steam Reforming plant to produce Hydrogen, first Carbon Monoxide, and Carbon Dioxide, a first separation unit configured to separate the Hydrogen, the first Carbon Monoxide, and the Carbon Dioxide, a Solid Oxide Electrolysis Stack configured to receive at least a portion of the Carbon Dioxide and to produce second Carbon Monoxide and Oxygen, a second separation unit configured to separate the Carbon Dioxide from the second Carbon Monoxide, and a methanol synthesis reactor configured to receive at least a portion of the Hydrogen and at least a portion of the second Carbon Monoxide to produce Methanol.

An oxide diluted gadolinium oxide combustible absorber related technique for controlling excess reactivity of an innovative small modular reactor (i-SMR) is disclosed. The oxide-diluted gadolinium oxide combustible absorber includes: a cylindrical combustible pellet formed by mixing and sintering oxides such as gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) and Al2O3; a cylindrical oxide pellet installed above the combustible pellet and formed of an oxide such as Al2O3; and a cladding layer in which a plurality of combustible pellets and oxide pellets are vertically stacked and mounted with respect to the cylindrical central axis. The inner diameter of the cladding layer is larger than the outer diameter of the combustible pellet and the oxide pellet, so that a gap is formed between the combustible pellet or the oxide pellet and the cladding layer. The excess reactivity of an innovative small modular reactor (i-SMR) can be effectively controlled by using a nuclear fuel assembly in which a high-strength dispersed gadolinium oxide-oxide combustible absorber (HIGA) having a high gadolinium oxide content and an integrated gadolinium oxide combustible absorber (IGD) having a low gadolinium oxide content are integrated.

The present invention relates to an operating system for a small modular reactor (SMR) using energy storage equipment in an independent power grid, the operating system comprising: an SMR (110); an electricity / steam regulation unit (120) that regulates and discharges electricity and steam generated from the SMR (110); a pumped-storage power plant (130) for pumped-storage power generation using the electricity from the electricity / steam regulation unit (120); a hydrogen production facility (140) that produces and stores hydrogen by using the electricity and steam from the electricity / steam regulation unit; and a phase change material energy storage unit (150) that stores energy in a phase change material by using the steam from the electricity / steam regulation unit (120).

This invention belongs to the field of modular small modular reactor (SMR) core technology, specifically relating to a long-short cycle method for SMR core balancing. It includes: Step 1: The fuel enrichment for core balancing is 4.4%~5.0%; Step 2: The core balancing uses a partial low-leakage loading, three-batch refueling, and long-short cycle strategy; Step 3: A long-cycle scheme with three-batch refueling fuel assemblies is implemented; Step 4: In the three-batch refueling fuel assemblies, 12 new fuel assemblies are arranged on the periphery of the core, and 12 or 13 new fuel assemblies are arranged inside the core, with new and old fuel assemblies interleaved in different areas of the core; Step 5: The enrichment of the internal new fuel assemblies is 4.45%, with 8~24 gadolinium-loaded fuel rods; the enrichment of the external new fuel assemblies is 4.95%, with 0~8 gadolinium-loaded fuel rods. The beneficial effects of this invention are: effectively reducing the maximum burnup of fuel rods and supporting the improvement of overall core performance.

The present invention relates to a small modular reactor including small fuel assemblies. The small modular reactor comprises: a reactor body; and a nuclear fuel material which is accommodated in the reactor body, includes a plurality of fuel assemblies, and has a section arrangement region. The section arrangement region includes a first arrangement region and a plurality of second arrangement regions that are located outside the first arrangement region and spaced apart from each other. The fuel assemblies include: first nuclear fuel assemblies that each have a first size and are closely arranged in the first arrangement region; and second nuclear fuel assemblies that each have a second size smaller than the first size and are arranged in the second arrangement region.

The application relates to a small modular reactor (SMR) module division method and system, comprising the following steps: determining correlation information of system components of an SMR system according to nuclear power design information, and constructing a comprehensive correlation matrix of the system components of the SMR system according to the correlation information of the system components; performing hierarchical module division according to the comprehensive correlation matrix of the system components of the SMR system, and obtaining a hierarchical clustering result of the system components of the SMR system; determining a target function and a constraint condition of SMR system module division; coding all modules in the hierarchical clustering result of the system components of the SMR system, and optimizing the module division of the SMR system, to obtain a target module division scheme. Through the application, the module division design efficiency, design quality and applicability can be improved, the rationality of the module division can be optimized, and the difficulty of system upgrading and maintenance can be reduced, and the system scalability and flexibility can be improved.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for transporting a nuclear fuel assembly, the apparatus, which transports a nuclear fuel assembly within a nuclear power plant comprising small modular reactors (SMRs), comprising: a hoist box that can move within the nuclear power plant, moving between the SMRs and nuclear fuel assembly; a fixing part partially attached to the nuclear fuel assembly to fix same; first and second wires connecting the hoist box and fixing part, the first wire supporting the fixing part during the lowering stage; and a stiffness adjustment part for adjusting the stiffness of the second wire.

A coast-down apparatus for a reactor coolant pump (RCP) of a small modular nuclear reactor of the present invention comprises: a solenoid valve; a rotor including an impulse blade and installed on a rotary shaft; and an energy storage unit for rotation-driving the impulse blade, wherein: the rotary shaft of a nuclear reactor coolant pump (RCP) is provided with a rotation detection unit for detecting whether to rotate; the rotor installed on the rotary shaft is provided with a motor, an impeller, and the impulse blade for receiving energy from the energy storage unit to rotate; when power of the nuclear reactor coolant pump (RCP) is lost, the solenoid valve performs a fail-open operation; a power supply unit supplies, when power is not supplied to the reactor coolant pump (RCP), power to each of the motor and the solenoid valve through a power supply line, and when the solenoid valve is opened, receives energy for rotating the impulse blade of the reactor coolant pump (RCP) from the energy storage unit through an energy supply pipe and a nozzle.

A small modular reactor cooling device and cooling method are provided. A small modular reactor cooling device includes: a reactor vessel in which a coolant circulates along a flow path structure; and a coolant storage unit provided inside the reactor vessel and charged with the coolant inside based on the circulating flow, wherein the coolant storage unit is in contact with a core melted material through the coolant charged therein when the core melted material is generated in the reactor vessel in the event of a serious accident and performs a cooling treatment on the core melted material to prevent the core melted material from leaking out to the outside.

The invention provides a reactor core of a thorium-based lead-cooled small modular reactor and a design method. The whole reactor core is of a cylinder structure; the reactor core adopts thorium-based fuel, takes martensite heat-resistant steel as a reactor core structure material, and takes a lead-bismuth coolant as a reactor coolant; the fuel rods and the control rods are arranged in the hexagonal grid so as to be arranged in the active reactor core area; the reactor core control system adopts boron carbide as an absorbing material; outside the active reactor core area, lead is used as a reflecting layer, and martensite heat-resistant steel is used as a shielding layer. Efficient and safe combination of thorium-uranium fuel circulation and a lead-bismuth coolant can be realized, so that an inherent safe compact reactor core is formed, and the possibility of melt-down of the reactor core is fundamentally eradicated; through the optimized physical design of the reactor core, autonomous operation with a long life cycle is realized, the number of refueling times is reduced, and operation and maintenance are simplified.

Proposed is a control rod assembly with enhanced control rod worth suitable for a small modular reactor (SMR), wherein the control rod assembly includes a plurality of spider vanes provided radially on a plane perpendicular to a spider body (110) and configured to support control rods, wherein the spider vanes includes four first spider vanes (Ixx and Iyy) arranged orthogonally to each other in principal-axis directions, four second spider vanes (Ixy) arranged in on-diagonal directions with respect to the first spider vanes, and eight third spider vanes (Ixxy and Ixyy) arranged in off-diagonal directions between the first spider vanes (Ixx and Iyy) and the second spider vanes (Ixy), wherein each of the first spider vanes and the third spider vanes is provided with two absorber rods, and each of the second spider vanes is provided with one absorber rod, thereby resulting in 28 absorber rods in total.

The invention relates to the field of nuclear fuel pellets, in particular to a nuclear reactor matrix material, a nuclear fuel and a preparation method of the nuclear fuel. The base material is formed by 80-90 wt% of spherical W powder, 0-15 wt% of spherical Fe powder and 0-15 wt% of spherical Cu powder through a high-temperature hot pressing sintering forming process or an SPS sintering process. The nuclear fuel comprises the nuclear reactor base material provided by the technical scheme and a fuel phase dispersed in the nuclear reactor base material, and the volume of the fuel phase accounts for less than 40% of the total volume of the nuclear fuel. The nuclear fuel is prepared by mixing base material powder and fuel phase powder and then carrying out hot pressed sintering. The nuclear fuel prepared by the invention has the characteristics of high temperature resistance, high thermal conductivity, radiation damage resistance, excellent thermophysical properties and the like, and is suitable for preparing nuclear fuel of a small modular reactor.

The present invention relates to an independent power grid system of a nuclear power plant including a small modular reactor (SMR), the independent power grid system comprising: a power generation module including the SMR; an integrated power facility that supplies power required for starting and operating the power generation module; a self-powered generator capable of generating power by itself; a switch yard that receives the power generated from the self-powered generator and the power generation module and supplies power to a consumer and the integrated power facility; and a control unit that controls the switch yard and the self-powered generator so that power is selectively supplied to the consumer and the integrated power facility.

The present invention essentially comprises the steps of disassembling and removing all components of the primary circuit except for the LWR reactor vessel, which is essentially emptied and neutralized, and subsequently replacing some of these components with sub-assemblies each composed of an integrated SMR reactor and a concrete / metal hybrid structure, where this concrete / metal hybrid structure is also used as a reactor pit for the SMR reactor, which is preferably filled with water, and fixing the SMR inside the reactor building and contributing to a third containment barrier, preferably while minimizing damage to the infrastructure of the reactor building. The present invention is related to a method for retrofitting a nuclear power plant.

The present invention relates to a nuclear power plant which includes a small modular reactor (SMR), the nuclear power plant comprising a water tank, wherein the water tank comprises: a first water tank filled with cooling water and forming a first space in which spent nuclear fuel is disposed; and a second water tank forming a second space which is separated from the first space and in which the small modular reactor (SMR) is disposed.

This invention belongs to the field of energy system optimization technology, and relates to a two-layer optimization method for a petrochemical park integrated energy system based on nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs). The method includes: 1. Obtaining the data required for optimization; 2. Constructing the configuration of the integrated energy system based on SMRs; 3. Designing a SMR heat load following strategy; 4. Selecting net present cost, renewable energy supply ratio, and lifecycle carbon emissions as optimization objective functions; 5. Obtaining the optimal equipment capacity of the system through a multi-objective cat swarm algorithm and the advantage-disadvantage distance method; 6. Performing operational optimization based on the optimal solution obtained from capacity optimization, operational optimization constraints, and objective functions. This invention achieves complementary utilization of multiple energy forms by synergistically coupling nuclear energy with renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, as well as traditional energy systems, thereby improving the overall utilization efficiency of the energy system and enhancing the stability and reliability of energy supply.

Disclosed is a technology related to an oxide-diluted gadolinia burnable absorber for controlling surplus reactivity of an innovative small modular reactor (i-SMR). The oxide-diluted gadolinia burnable absorber comprises: cylindrical burnable pellets formed by mixing and sintering gadolinia (Gd2O3) and oxides such as Al2O3; cylindrical oxide pellets formed of oxides such as Al2O3 and mounted above the burnable pellets; and a cladding layer having a plurality of burnable pellets and oxide pellets vertically stacked and mounted therein with respect to a cylindrical central axis. The inner diameter of the cladding layer is larger than the outer diameters of the burnable pellets and the oxide pellets, so that a gap is formed between the burnable pellets or the oxide pellets and the cladding layer. By using a nuclear fuel assembly integrating a high-intensity dispersed gadolinia-oxide burnable absorber (HIGA) having a high gadolinia content and an integrated gadolinia burnable absorber (IGD) having a low gadolinia content, surplus reactivity of an innovative small modular reactor (i-SMR) can be effectively controlled.

A heat pipe for a small modular reactor includes: an evaporator portion fabricated of a first material; and a condenser portion fabricated of a second material, the evaporator portion and the condenser portion being joined to define an interior containing a working fluid. The first material has a lower neutron capture cross section than the second material. The second material has a higher oxidation resistance above 150° C. than the first material.

The naturally controlled temperature low-pressure fast neutron reactor maintains reactivity by evaporating and condensing nuclear fuel. The reactor evaporates a portion of the fissionable nuclear fuel when temperature exceeds the boiling temperature of the molten salt fuel. By the evaporation, the reactor controls the core reactivity chain reaction, preventing the temperature from exceeding the operation temperature. The evaporated fuel gas phase is condensed externally or internally. The reactor includes breedable materials like U238 and Thorium to generate additional fissionable fuel. Because of its inherent safety and simplicity, the reactor can be modernized into a small modular reactor and operate at a designed temperature controlled by the nuclear fuel chemistry. The reactor reflector can include ceramic solid particles of used nuclear fuel, U238, and Thorium.