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Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Hiroaki Suzuki, Shunsuke Uchida, Masanori Naitoh, Hidetoshi Okada, Souji Koikari, Yukihiko Nagaya, Akira Nakamura, Seiichi Koshizuka, Derek H. Lister
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 1 | July 2013 | Pages 62-74
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics/Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A16992
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A six-step procedure based on three-dimensional (3-D) computational fluid dynamics codes and a coupled model of electrochemistry and oxide layer growth models was proposed to estimate local wall thinning due to flow-accelerated corrosion (FAC), and they were applied to evaluate wall-thinning rates, residual lifetimes of the pipes, and applicability of countermeasures against FAC. A verification and validation (V&V) evaluation based on a comparison of calculated and measured wall thinning confirmed that the wall-thinning rate could be predicted with an accuracy within a factor of 2 and that residual wall thicknesses after 1 year of operation could be estimated with an error of <20%.To mitigate one of the disadvantages of the 3-D FAC code, which is the large amount of computational time needed, and to evaluate FAC occurrence probability for entire plant systems, a one-dimensional (1-D) FAC code was developed by applying 1-D mass transfer coefficients and geometrical factors. High-FAC occurrence zones along entire cooling systems and the effects of countermeasures on mitigating the risks could be evaluated within a small amount of computer time. Prior to application of the easy-to-handle FAC code for plant analysis, its accuracy and applicability should be confirmed based on V&V processes. From comparison of maximum wall-thinning rates calculated with the 1-D FAC code, those calculated with the 3-D FAC code, and measured results for experimental loops and secondary piping of an actual pressurized water reactor plant, it was confirmed that the calculated wall-thinning rates agreed with the measured ones within a factor of 2.