Development and Transient Analysis of a Helical-coil Steam Generator for High Temperature Reactors

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Young Investigators

Volume

2

Issue

2

Publication Date

8-1-2012

First Page

40

Last Page

50

Abstract

A high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) is under development by the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Its design emphasizes electrical power production which may potentially be coupled with process heat for hydrogen production and other industrial applications. NGNP is considering a helical-coil steam generator for the primary heat transport loop heat exchanger based on its increased heat transfer and compactness when compared to other steam generators. The safety and reliability of the helical-coil steam generator is currently under evaluation as part of the development of NGNP. Transients, such as loss of coolant accidents (LOCA), are of interest in evaluating the safety of steam generators. In this study, a complete steam generator inlet pipe break (double ended pipe break) LOCA was simulated by an exponential loss of primary side pressure. For this analysis, a model of the helical-coil steam generator was developed using RELAP5-3D, an INL in-house systems analysis code. The steam generator model behaved normally during the transient simulating the complete steam generator inlet pipe break LOCA. Further analysis is required to comprehensively evaluate the safety and reliability of the helical-coil steam generator design in the NGNP setting.

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