HTGR Knowledge Base

Conference Article: Status of a reformer design for a modular HTGR in an in-line configuration

Gluck, R. (General Electric Co., Advance Reactors Systems Dept., California (United States)); Whitling, W.H.; Lipps, A.J

Abstract

For the past several years the General Electric Company has had the technical lead on advanced concept studies for the Modular High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR) programs sponsored by the United States Department of Energy. The focus of the Modular Reactor System (MRS) effort is the development of a generic nuclear heat source capable of supplying heat to either a steam generator/electric cycle or a high temperature steam /methane reforming cycle. Some early ground rules for this study were that the reactor be designed for 950 deg. C direct cycle reforming and that the core be of the prismatic type. Since the prismatic core required control rods near the center of the core, the vertical in-line concept was selected to promote natural circulation cooling of the core for all potential transients except the depressurized core heatup transient. Although the requirement for a prismatic core has been eliminated for recent cost reduction studies, the vertical in-line configuration has been retained for its potential as the lowest cost configuration. This paper presents the results of recent design and analytical studies conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using a steam/methane reformer in a Vertical In-Line (VIL) arrangement with the generic nuclear heat source.

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key words: Gas Cooled Reactor, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Specialists' meeting on heat exchanging components of gas-cooled reactors Duesseldorf (Germany) 16-19 Apr 1984
International Atomic Energy Agency, International Working Group on Gas-Cooled Reactors, Vienna (Austria)
IWGGCR--9, pp:276-287