NUCLEAR REACTOR Russian patent published in 2004 - IPC

FIELD: nuclear power engineering; helium-cooled high-temperature reactors.

SUBSTANCE: proposed reactor has graphite blocks with channels accommodating fuel microelements. These channels are made in the form of coaxial annular cavities holding loosely charged fuel microelements. Layer of fuel microelements charged in cavities is rather thick for resonance neutrons, that is product of this layer thickness by mean uranium density in layer should range between 2.5 and 5 g/cm². Gaseous coolant vent holes are radially disposed and passed through cavity charged with fuel microelements. Coolant is effectively stirred within headers which eliminates nonuniformity in coolant heating upon respective passage through layer of fuel microelements. Proposed reactor design enables raising heterogeneity of its core. Such heterogeneous core needs lower enrichment of uranium, smaller amount of graphite, and greater uranium charge. Fuel microelement layer has relatively small amount of graphite and can be made sufficiently thick for resonance neutrons.

EFFECT: enhanced heterogeneity and reduced size of reactor core.

2 cl, 2 dwg