Abstract
The reactor head of a sodium-cooled fast reactor KALIMER-600 should be cooled during the reactor operation in order to maintain the integrity of sealing material and to prevent a creep fatigue. Analyzing turbulent natural convection flow in the cover gas region of reactor vessel with the commercial CFD code CFX10.0, the cooling requirement for the reactor head and the performance of the insulation plate were assessed. The results showed that the high temperature region around reactor vessel was caused by the convective heat transfer of Helium gas flow ascending the gap between the insulation plate and the reactor vessel inner wall. The insulation plate was shown to sufficiently block the radiative heat transfer from pool surface to reactor head to a satisfactory degree. More than $32.5m^3$/sec of cooling air flow rate was predicted to maintain the required temperature of reactor head.
