CN117174349A - Gallium metal cooled megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor - Google Patents
Gallium metal cooled megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor Download PDFInfo
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- CN117174349A CN117174349A CN202210600314.XA CN202210600314A CN117174349A CN 117174349 A CN117174349 A CN 117174349A CN 202210600314 A CN202210600314 A CN 202210600314A CN 117174349 A CN117174349 A CN 117174349A
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- Prior art keywords
- gallium metal
- reactor
- megawatt
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- fuel
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- GYHNNYVSQQEPJS-UHFFFAOYSA-N Gallium Chemical compound [Ga] GYHNNYVSQQEPJS-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 title claims abstract description 50
- 229910052733 gallium Inorganic materials 0.000 title claims abstract description 50
- 229910052751 metal Inorganic materials 0.000 title claims abstract description 38
- 239000002184 metal Substances 0.000 title claims abstract description 38
- 239000002826 coolant Substances 0.000 claims abstract description 34
- 230000009257 reactivity Effects 0.000 claims abstract description 8
- 239000000446 fuel Substances 0.000 claims description 32
- 238000006243 chemical reaction Methods 0.000 claims description 7
- 230000000712 assembly Effects 0.000 claims description 5
- 238000000429 assembly Methods 0.000 claims description 5
- 230000004992 fission Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 239000007788 liquid Substances 0.000 claims description 2
- 239000000126 substance Substances 0.000 abstract description 2
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 description 5
- DGAQECJNVWCQMB-PUAWFVPOSA-M Ilexoside XXIX Chemical compound C[C@@H]1CC[C@@]2(CC[C@@]3(C(=CC[C@H]4[C@]3(CC[C@@H]5[C@@]4(CC[C@@H](C5(C)C)OS(=O)(=O)[O-])C)C)[C@@H]2[C@]1(C)O)C)C(=O)O[C@H]6[C@@H]([C@H]([C@@H]([C@H](O6)CO)O)O)O.[Na+] DGAQECJNVWCQMB-PUAWFVPOSA-M 0.000 description 4
- 238000012423 maintenance Methods 0.000 description 4
- 238000002844 melting Methods 0.000 description 4
- 230000008018 melting Effects 0.000 description 4
- 229910052708 sodium Inorganic materials 0.000 description 4
- 239000011734 sodium Substances 0.000 description 4
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 3
- 229910052770 Uranium Inorganic materials 0.000 description 2
- 238000009835 boiling Methods 0.000 description 2
- 238000007711 solidification Methods 0.000 description 2
- 230000008023 solidification Effects 0.000 description 2
- JFALSRSLKYAFGM-UHFFFAOYSA-N uranium(0) Chemical compound [U] JFALSRSLKYAFGM-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 2
- 229910001152 Bi alloy Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 230000009286 beneficial effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000001276 controlling effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000001816 cooling Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000010612 desalination reaction Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000001514 detection method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000009792 diffusion process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000000694 effects Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000005516 engineering process Methods 0.000 description 1
- 238000007689 inspection Methods 0.000 description 1
- 229910001338 liquidmetal Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 239000007769 metal material Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000008520 organization Effects 0.000 description 1
- 231100000614 poison Toxicity 0.000 description 1
- 230000002265 prevention Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000002285 radioactive effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000001105 regulatory effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000013535 sea water Substances 0.000 description 1
- 239000003440 toxic substance Substances 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
- Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
- Y02E30/00—Energy generation of nuclear origin
- Y02E30/30—Nuclear fission reactors
Landscapes
- Structure Of Emergency Protection For Nuclear Reactors (AREA)
Abstract
A gallium metal cooled megawatt miniature modular nuclear reactor comprising: a pressure vessel charged with gallium metal coolant and control rods and heat exchangers disposed within the vessel for reactivity control and emergency shutdown use, wherein: the reactor core part is positioned at the bottom of the control rod, and the side surface of the control rod is provided with the flow baffle, so that the invention utilizes the physical and chemical characteristics of gallium metal and the design concept of a small nuclear reactor, adopts gallium metal as a coolant, and remarkably improves the application feasibility of the megawatt-level small modular reactor.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to a technology in the field of nuclear energy application, in particular to a gallium metal-cooled megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor.
Background
The future nuclear reactor is developed towards miniaturization, multipurpose and high efficiency, and plays an increasingly important role in the fields of deep sea, deep space and the like. The traditional liquid metal materials (sodium, lead bismuth alloy and the like) have the advantages of good thermal characteristics, better neutron economy and the like when being used as a nuclear reactor coolant. However, sodium is chemically active; the lead-based coolant is easy to solidify at low temperature, and can generate radioactive highly toxic substances Po; and lead has high density, which is not beneficial to realizing the light weight of a small-sized reactor. Aiming at the design characteristics of light weight, flexibility and safety of the modularized small-sized reactor, a design scheme of a gallium metal-cooled megawatt-level small-sized modularized nuclear reactor is provided.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the problems that the existing sodium coolant is active in nature, the lead-based coolant is easy to solidify at low temperature and the like, the invention provides the megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor cooled by gallium metal, and the application feasibility of the megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor is obviously improved by taking gallium metal as the coolant by utilizing the physicochemical characteristics of the gallium metal and the design concept of the small nuclear reactor.
The invention is realized by the following technical scheme:
the invention relates to a gallium metal cooled megawatt miniature modular nuclear reactor comprising: a pressure vessel charged with gallium metal coolant and control rods and heat exchangers disposed within the vessel for reactivity control and emergency shutdown use, wherein: the reactor core part is positioned at the bottom of the control rod, the side surface of the control rod is provided with a flow baffle, low-temperature gallium metal coolant in the reactor core flows in from the bottom of the reactor, and energy generated by fission is carried out through an active region of the reactor core; the high-temperature gallium metal coolant flows out of the active area, heat is exchanged with a heat exchange working medium of the thermoelectric conversion system in the heat exchanger, the low-temperature gallium metal coolant subjected to heat exchange flows out of the heat exchanger downwards, and the obtained heat exchange working medium enters the thermoelectric conversion part to convert heat energy generated by the reactor core into electric energy. The entire megawatt reactor is closed by a pressure vessel.
The heat exchange working medium of the thermoelectric conversion system can be replaced according to actual situation, such as supercritical CO 2 。
Technical effects
According to the invention, gallium is adopted as a coolant of the megawatt-level small modular reactor, and the gallium cold megawatt-level small modular reactor with a hexagonal structure is combined with a reasonable reactor core design, so that the light weight of the small modular reactor is realized, the advantages of relatively low gallium density and melting point, high boiling point and difficult solidification after melting are utilized, the safety characteristic of the reactor core can be ensured, and the maintenance cost of the reactor is reduced. The reactor core design scheme can ensure that the reactor core can maintain operation for 5-10 years under the working condition of 1-20 MWe.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a gallium metal cooled megawatt miniature modular reactor system;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a gallium metal cooled megawatt miniature modular reactor;
FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of a core subunit;
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of radial placement of gallium metal cooled megawatt mini-modular reactor cores;
in the figure: control rods 1, heat exchangers 2, pressure vessels 3, gallium metal coolant 4, flow baffles 5, core section 6, core subunits 7, reflector subunits 8, fuel rods 9, assembly walls 10;
fig. 5 is a graph of the variation trend of the burnup of gallium metal cooled megawatt-level small modular reactors.
Detailed Description
As shown in fig. 1 and 2, this embodiment relates to a gallium metal-cooled megawatt miniature modular nuclear reactor, comprising: a pressure vessel 3 filled with gallium metal coolant 4 and control rods 1 and heat exchangers 2 disposed inside thereof for reactivity control and emergency shutdown use, wherein: the reactor core part 6 is positioned at the bottom of the control rod 1, the side surface of the control rod 1 is provided with a flow baffle 5, low-temperature gallium metal coolant in the reactor core flows in from the bottom of the reactor, and energy generated by fission is carried out through a reactor core active region; the high-temperature gallium metal coolant flows out from the active area, and exchanges heat with the heat exchange working medium of the thermoelectric conversion system in the heat exchanger, and the heat exchange working medium of the thermoelectric conversion system can be replaced according to actual situation, such as supercritical CO 2 The low-temperature gallium metal coolant subjected to heat exchange flows downwards from the heat exchanger, and the heat exchange working medium with the obtained heat enters the thermoelectric conversion part to convert the heat energy generated by the reactor core into electric energy. The entire megawatt reactor is closed by a pressure vessel.
The design thermal power of the whole gallium cold small modular reactor is 2.5-50 MWt, the electric power is 1-20MWe, and the thermal cycle efficiency is 40%. The reactor can be used for various scenes such as power supply and heat supply, deep sea or space detection, sea water desalination and the like in remote areas which cannot be covered by a power grid, and can maintain the operation time of 5-10 years without changing materials under the design rated power.
The core section 6 is driven by a main pump or by natural circulation.
As shown in fig. 3, the active area part 6 of the reactor core is in a regular hexagonal structure, and comprises a hexagonal array formed by a plurality of reflecting layer assemblies 8 and a hexagonal array formed by a plurality of reactor core fuel assemblies 7 from outside to inside in sequence; the height of the active area in the axial direction is 150-300 cm, and BeO reflecting layers with the height of 50cm are respectively arranged on the upper side and the lower side of the axial direction of the reactor core and used for reflecting neutrons leaking in the axial direction so as to reduce the initial loading capacity of fuel as far as possible.
The BeO reflective layer structure is the same size as the fuel assembly 7, but the material of the fuel rod filling part is replaced by BeO.
The size of the hexagonal array and the arrangement position of the components can be adjusted according to the overall size of the reactor core, the power and the requirements of safety.
The core is partitioned with different enrichment fuel assemblies 7, the power can be flattened by arranging lower enrichment fuel internally and higher enrichment fuel externally, and the reactivity fluctuation of the core during burnup can be reduced as much as possible.
As shown in fig. 4, each core fuel assembly 7 includes an assembly wall 10 of hexagonal structure and a plurality of fuel rods 9 arranged therein in a hexagonal manner, with gallium metal coolant 4 filling the area between the fuel rods 9.
The use of the gallium coolant overcomes the problem that the lead coolant is easy to solidify at low temperature, has good heat conducting property and stable chemical property, can effectively ensure the safety performance of the reactor, and reduces the operation and maintenance costs.
Wherein the fuel may be UO 2 Or MOX fuel with fuel enrichment degree set to 15.0% -19.5% in compliance with the International organization for atomic energy (IAEA) 235 And the U enrichment degree is lower than 20% of low enrichment degree uranium so as to ensure the nuclear diffusion prevention capability of the uranium.
The reflecting layer assembly 8 has the same structural size as the fuel assembly 7, but the filling part of the fuel rod is replaced by liquid gallium.
The enrichment degree and the diameter of the hexagonal distribution type reactor core can be adjusted according to different reactor core design requirements.
In the central part of the active region of the reactor, B is designed 4 The control rod of C can be used for regulating and controlling the reactivity of the reactor in the running process and the emergency shutdown under the accident working condition.
The whole reactor-loop system operates under normal pressure, so that the operation and maintenance difficulties are reduced.
The parameters of the core section 6 are as follows:
| parameter type | Parameter range |
| Fuel rod diameter/mm | 9.0～12.0 |
| Component size (side length)/mm | 100.0～140.0 |
| power/MWe | 1～20 |
| Core stacking life/year | 5～10 |
| Outer boundary diameter/cm | 165～220 |
| Core height/cm | 100～250 |
| Form of fuel | UO 2 Or MOX fuel |
| Fissionable nuclide enrichment | 15.0％～19.5％ |
| Axially reflective layer material | BeO |
| Control rod material | B 4 C |
| Operating pressure/MPa | 0.1 |
| Inlet coolant temperature/°c | 300～350 |
| Outlet coolant temperature/°c | 450～500 |
Through specific calculation tests, the diameter of the fuel rods is d, the distance between the fuel rods is p, and when the diameter of the fuel rods is 12.0cm and p/d=1.38, the reactivity fluctuation of the reactor is 1000pcm, k in the whole service life under the working conditions of 50MWt of thermal power and 20MWe of electric power eff Greater than 1 throughout the life, the reactor thus has sufficient residual reactivity to ensure safe operation for more than 10 years, as shown in fig. 5.
Compared with the traditional metal cooling reactor, the megawatt modular reactor of the gallium metal coolant provided by the invention solves the problems that the sodium coolant is active in property, the lead-based coolant is easy to solidify at low temperature and the like, improves the safety performance of the reactor, is easy to realize the light weight of the modular reactor, and improves the application feasibility of the megawatt small modular reactor. The design of the reactor core can ensure the reliable application of gallium coolant in the small modular reactor.
The low temperature coolant is split from the high temperature coolant by a flow baffle. The reactor core and its structural materials and all gallium metal are surrounded by a pressure vessel, the system within which operates at atmospheric pressure, driven by a main pump or natural circulation. The advantages of relatively low density and melting point of gallium metal, high boiling point and difficult solidification after melting are utilized, so that the safety characteristic of the reactor core can be ensured, and the maintenance cost of the reactor can be reduced.
Through calculation and inspection, the megawatt modular small reactor can realize safe operation for 5-10 years under the electric power of 1-20 MWe.
The foregoing embodiments may be partially modified in numerous ways by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the claims and not by the foregoing embodiments, and all such implementations are within the scope of the invention.
Claims (6)
1. A gallium metal cooled megawatt miniature modular nuclear reactor comprising: a pressure vessel charged with gallium metal coolant and control rods and heat exchangers disposed within the vessel for reactivity control and emergency shutdown use, wherein: the reactor core part is positioned at the bottom of the control rod, the side surface of the control rod is provided with a flow baffle, low-temperature gallium metal coolant flows in from the bottom of the reactor and takes the energy generated by fission out through the reactor core active area; after flowing in from the heat exchanger, the high-temperature gallium metal coolant exchanges heat with the gallium metal coolant serving as a heat exchange working medium, the low-temperature gallium metal coolant after heat exchange flows out from the heat exchanger downwards, and the obtained heat exchange working medium enters the thermoelectric conversion part to convert heat energy generated by the reactor core into electric energy. The entire megawatt reactor is closed by a pressure vessel.
2. The gallium metal cooled megawatt mini-modular nuclear reactor of claim 1 wherein said core section is driven by a main pump or by natural circulation.
3. The gallium metal-cooled megawatt mini-modular nuclear reactor of claim 1 or 2, wherein the core portion is a regular hexagonal structure comprising, in order from the outside to the inside, a hexagonal array of reflecting layer assemblies and a hexagonal array of core fuel assemblies.
4. A gallium metal-cooled megawatt miniature modular nuclear reactor as set forth in claim 3, wherein the active area of the core is composed of a fuel assembly part, the active area has a height of 150-300 cm in the axial direction, and BeO reflection layers having a height of 50cm are respectively designed on the upper and lower sides of the core in the axial direction.
5. A gallium metal cooled megawatt mini-modular nuclear reactor according to claim 3, wherein each core fuel assembly includes an assembly wall of hexagonal configuration and a plurality of fuel rods hexagonally arranged therein, gallium metal coolant filling the regions between the fuel rods;
the reflecting layer assembly has the same structural size as the fuel assembly, but the filling part of the fuel rod is replaced by liquid gallium.
6. The gallium metal cooled megawatt mini-modular nuclear reactor of claim 5 wherein said fuel is UO 2 Or MOX fuel, the fuel enrichment degree is set to 15.0% -19.5%.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202210600314.XA CN117174349A (en) | 2022-05-27 | 2022-05-27 | Gallium metal cooled megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN202210600314.XA CN117174349A (en) | 2022-05-27 | 2022-05-27 | Gallium metal cooled megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor |
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| CN117174349A true CN117174349A (en) | 2023-12-05 |
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| CN202210600314.XA Pending CN117174349A (en) | 2022-05-27 | 2022-05-27 | Gallium metal cooled megawatt-level small modular nuclear reactor |
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Citations (8)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JP2005049135A (en) * | 2003-07-30 | 2005-02-24 | Toshiba Corp | Liquid metal-cooled nuclear power plant |
| US20160329113A1 (en) * | 2013-12-06 | 2016-11-10 | Stc.Unm | SLIMM-Scalable Liquid Metal Cooled Small Modular Reactor |
| CN106710645A (en) * | 2016-12-30 | 2017-05-24 | 中国科学院合肥物质科学研究院 | Major loop circulation device used for nuclear energy system |
| CN109256222A (en) * | 2018-09-03 | 2019-01-22 | 岭东核电有限公司 | The cold fast neutron nuclear reaction shut-down system of sodium |
| US20190103195A1 (en) * | 2017-10-02 | 2019-04-04 | Westinghouse Electric Company Llc | Pool type liquid metal fast spectrum reactor using a printed circuit heat exchanger connection to the power conversion system |
| CN210805248U (en) * | 2019-08-27 | 2020-06-19 | 华南理工大学 | Fast neutron reactor using gallium metal as coolant |
| CN111899903A (en) * | 2019-05-05 | 2020-11-06 | 中国科学院理化技术研究所 | Liquid metal reactor, liquid metal power generation device and liquid metal heat exchange device |
| CN111951987A (en) * | 2020-09-04 | 2020-11-17 | 东南大学 | Small modular reactor coolant system and experimental method applying same |
-
2022
- 2022-05-27 CN CN202210600314.XA patent/CN117174349A/en active Pending
Patent Citations (8)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JP2005049135A (en) * | 2003-07-30 | 2005-02-24 | Toshiba Corp | Liquid metal-cooled nuclear power plant |
| US20160329113A1 (en) * | 2013-12-06 | 2016-11-10 | Stc.Unm | SLIMM-Scalable Liquid Metal Cooled Small Modular Reactor |
| CN106710645A (en) * | 2016-12-30 | 2017-05-24 | 中国科学院合肥物质科学研究院 | Major loop circulation device used for nuclear energy system |
| US20190103195A1 (en) * | 2017-10-02 | 2019-04-04 | Westinghouse Electric Company Llc | Pool type liquid metal fast spectrum reactor using a printed circuit heat exchanger connection to the power conversion system |
| CN109256222A (en) * | 2018-09-03 | 2019-01-22 | 岭东核电有限公司 | The cold fast neutron nuclear reaction shut-down system of sodium |
| CN111899903A (en) * | 2019-05-05 | 2020-11-06 | 中国科学院理化技术研究所 | Liquid metal reactor, liquid metal power generation device and liquid metal heat exchange device |
| CN210805248U (en) * | 2019-08-27 | 2020-06-19 | 华南理工大学 | Fast neutron reactor using gallium metal as coolant |
| CN111951987A (en) * | 2020-09-04 | 2020-11-17 | 东南大学 | Small modular reactor coolant system and experimental method applying same |
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