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Conference Article: Application of the high temperature reactor in the energy economy

Kugeler, K.; Barnert, H. (Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH (Germany). Inst. fuer Sicherheitsforschung und Reaktortechnik)

Abstract

In this paper an evaluation on the requirements for a catastrophe-free nuclear energy is given. And it is shown that the HTR in an appropriate design can meet these requirements. An adequate HTR design for the production of high temperature heat for various processes is presented and it is explained with respect to the technology and the safety. The most interesting process heat applications is the steam reforming process. In addition processes for the production of oil from oil shale and oil sand and for the refinement of coal are of interest. A long term option is the production of hydrogen from water by thermochemical (pure thermal and hybrid) splitting of water. In all these processes the transfer of the heat from the reactor to the process may require a helium/helium heat exchanger. Particular problems of the coupling are: the material for the heat exchangers with wall temperatures of about 900 deg. C, the diffusion of tritium into the products, the hazardous potential of the process gases in the vicinity of the nuclear reactor and the after heat removal in extreme accidents. To all these problems contributions are made in this paper which show that fundamental solutions are available.

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key words: Gas Cooled Reactor, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Technical committee meeting on high temperature applications of nuclear energy. Oarai (Japan). 19-20 Oct 1992
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)
IAEA-TECDOC--761, pp:23-33