Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
권호 표지
DOI QR코드

DOI QR Code

Conceptual design of a MW heat pipe reactor

  • Yunqin Wu (School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University) ;
  • Youqi Zheng (School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University) ;
  • Qichang Chen (Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute Co., Ltd) ;
  • Jinming Li (Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute Co., Ltd) ;
  • Xianan Du (School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University) ;
  • Yongping Wang (School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University) ;
  • Yushan Tao (Reactor Science and Engineering Research Sub-institute, Nuclear Power Institute of China)
  • Received : 2023.06.29
  • Accepted : 2024.02.05
  • Published : 2024.03.25
Download PDF
⟨ Previous Next ⟩

Abstract

-In recent years, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUV) have been vigorously developed, and with the continuous deepening of marine exploration, traditional energy can no longer meet the energy supply. Nuclear energy can achieve a huge and sustainable energy supply. The heat pipe reactor has no flow system and related auxiliary systems, and the supporting mechanical moving parts are greatly reduced, the noise is relatively small, and the system is simpler and more reliable. It is more favorable for the control of unmanned systems. The use of heat pipe reactors in unmanned underwater vehicles can meet the needs for highly compact, long-life, unmanned, highly reliable, ultra-quiet power supplies. In this paper, a heat pipe reactor scheme named UPR-S that can be applied to unmanned underwater vehicles is designed. The reactor core can provide 1 MW of thermal power, and it can operate at full power for 5 years. UPR-S has negative reactive feedback, it has inherent safety. The temperature and stress of the reactor are within the limits of the material, and the core safety can still be guaranteed when the two heat pipes are failed.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was partially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2019YFB1901102) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U2167205)

References

  1. J. Mou, The development of Marine survey equipment technology in China, Marine Development and Management 33 (10) (2016) 78-82.
  2. Y. Qian, X. Sun, W. Liu, Development of nuclear fuel for power supply of space nuclear reactor, Atomic Energy Sci. Technol. 53 (1) (2019) 45-49.
  3. X. Liu, R. Zhang, Y. Liang, et al., Core thermal-hydraulic evaluation of a heat pipe cooled nuclear reactor, Ann. Nucl. Energy 142 (2020) 107412.
  4. Q. Chen, Research on heat pipe technology and performance analysis code, Atomic Energy Sci. Technol. 54 (7) (2020) 1176-1184.
  5. D.I. Poston, The Heat Pipe-Operated Mars Exploration Reactor (HOMER), AIP Conference Proceedings, 2001.
  6. M.S. El-Genk, J. Tournier, 'SAIRS'-scalable Amtec integrated reactor space power system, Prog. Nucl. Energy 45 (1) (2004) 25~59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnucene.2004.08.002
  7. M.S. El-Genk, J. Tournier, Conceptual Design of HP-STMCs Space Reactor Power System for 110 kWe, AIP Conference Proceedings, 2004.
  8. A. Bushman, et al., The Martian Surface Reactor: an Advanced Nuclear Power Station for Manned Extraterrestrial Exploration, 2004.
  9. M.A. Gibson, D.I. Poston, NASA's Kilopower Reactor Development and the Path to Higher Power Missions, 2017. NASA/TM-2017-219467.
  10. M.A. Gibson, et al., Kilopower, NASA's Small Fission Power System for Science and Human Exploration, 12th International Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2014.
  11. Y. Zheng, X. Du, Z. Xu, et al., SARAX: a new code for fast reactor analysis part I: Methods, Nucl. Eng. Des. 340 (2018) 421-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.10.008
  12. Y. Zheng, X. Du, Z. Xu, et al., SARAX: a new code for fast reactor analysis part II: verification, validation and uncertainty quantification, Nucl. Eng. Des. 331 (2018) 41-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2018.02.033
  13. Y. Tao, Core Physical and Shielding Scheme Conceptual Design Research of Megawatt Scale Heat Pipe Reactor, Master's thesis of Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2022.
  14. Z. Tian, J. Zhang, C. Wang, et al., Experimental evaluation on heat transfer limits of sodium heat pipe with screen mesh for nuclear reactor system, Appl. Therm. Eng. 209 (2022) 118296-118307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2022.118296
  15. Z. Tian, Y. Liu, C. Wang, et al., Single/multi-objective optimization and comparative analysis of liquid-metal heat pipe, Int. J. Energy Res. 46 (12) (2022) 17521-17539. https://doi.org/10.1002/er.8420
  16. Z. Tian, C. Wang, K. Guo, et al., A review of liquid metal high temperature heat pipes: Theoretical model, design, and application, Int. J. Heat Mass Tran. 214 (2023) 124434-124466.
  17. A. Faghri, Heat pipes: review, opportunities and challenges, Frontiers in Heat Pipes (2014) 5.
  18. J. Zhang, T. Zhu, Systematic review of solar air collector technologies: performance evaluation, structure design and application analysis, Sustain. Energy Technol. Assessments 54 (2022) 102885.
  19. Z. Tian, C. Wang, J. Huang, et al., Code development and analysis on the operation of liquid metal high temperature heat pipes under full condition, Ann. Nucl. Energy 160 (3) (2021) 108396.
  20. Y. Ma, et al., Heat pipe failure accident analysis in megawatt heat pipe cooled reactor, Ann. Nucl. Energy 149 (2020) 107755.