Selective Coolant Cleanup and Heat Sinking for Nuclear Reactors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing nuclear reactor coolant systems face challenges in efficiently removing impurities and debris while minimizing heat loss, especially during maintenance or transient states, often requiring full shutdown to address these issues.
Innovation Solution
A combined coolant cleanup and heat removal system that selectively switches between purification and heat sinking modes, using a regenerative heat exchanger and cooler to manage coolant flow and impurity removal, allowing for continuous operation and maintenance without significant heat loss.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If coolant is cooled to remove impurities through precipitation, then purification is improved, but heat loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the coolant flow into two separate streams: one stream is cooled to precipitate impurities while the other stream maintains operating temperature. This segmentation allows purification to occur without cooling the entire coolant volume, thereby minimizing heat loss while achieving effective impurity removal through selective cooling of only the portion needed for precipitation.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts only the necessary amount of coolant from the main flow for cooling and purification purposes. By taking out a small portion of the coolant stream to be cooled and filtered, then returning it to the main hot stream, the system achieves purification without subjecting the entire coolant inventory to cooling, thus preventing excessive heat loss.
2Reliability
If coolant flow is stopped for maintenance and impurity removal, then purification is improved, but operational time is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables continuous coolant circulation and reactor operation while simultaneously performing purification functions. The purification process occurs in-line during normal operation rather than requiring shutdowns, maintaining continuous useful action of both power generation and impurity removal without interruption to either function.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary cooling and purification of a portion of the coolant stream before it re-joins the main hot stream. This preliminary action removes impurities proactively during operation, preventing their accumulation and eliminating the need for subsequent shutdowns for maintenance, thus preserving operational continuity.
3Use of energy by moving object
If regenerative heat exchanger is used to cool incoming coolant, then energy efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The regenerative heat exchanger serves as an intermediary device that transfers thermal energy from the outgoing hot coolant stream to the incoming cool stream. This mediator enables efficient heat recovery and preheating of the incoming coolant without requiring external heating sources, improving energy efficiency while adding only a single heat exchange component to the system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables efficient impurity removal and heat dissipation in nuclear reactors, supporting continuous operation and maintenance by seamlessly transitioning between purification and heat sinking modes, reducing the need for full shutdowns.
Implementation Method 1
Regenerative heat exchanger 60 may be used to initially cool an incoming coolant stream 61 with outgoing, cooler coolant that is to be resupplied to the intermediate loop
Implementation Method 2
cooler 70, which may be a series of smaller tubes with fins exposed to an open air fan 71 to convect away further heat
Implementation Method 3
Cooler 70 may lower the temperature of the coolant sufficiently so that impurities, such as oxides, will solidify or precipitate from the fluid coolant
Data Source
AI summary
Combined cleanup and heat sink systems work with nuclear reactor coolant loops. Combined systems may join hotter and colder sections of the coolant loops in parallel with any steam generator or other extractor and provide optional heat removal between the same. Combined systems also remove impurities or debris from a fluid coolant without significant heat loss from the coolant. A cooler in the combined system may increase in capacity or be augmented in number to move between purifying cooling and major heat removal from the coolant, potentially as an emergency cooler. The cooler may be joined to the hotter and colder sections through valved flow paths depending on desired functionality. Sections of the coolant loops may be fully above the cooler, which may be above the reactor, to drive flow by gravity and enhance isolation of sections of the coolant loop.