Reactor Pressure Vessel Cooling Scheme: Selection and Validation for Small Nuclear Power Plants

An analysis of existing and possible designs of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor installations has shed light on the critical elements determining the reactor’s efficiency and reliability; it required determination of approaches to the development and theoretical and experimental substantiation of solutions for such critical units. Among the problems requiring a separate investigation in the development of the concept for the reactor are the selection and validation of the solutions for the cooling system of the reactor’s pressure vessel, which is one of the nuclear and radiation safety barriers. The selection and validation were accomplished using modern software tools, tests, and tests and experimental studies were performed on prototypes. The proposed and substantiated, both computationally and experimentally, scheme of the low-temperature leg that cools the units of the reactor vessel that are sensitive to high temperatures made it possible to reduce the temperature gradient and increase the permissible stresses on the reactor pressure vessel.