Publication
Title
Development of a secondary SCRAM system for fast reactors and ADS systems
Author
Abstract
One important safety aspect of any reactor is the ability to shutdown the reactor. A shutdown in an ADS can be done by stopping the accelerator or by lowering the multiplication factor of the reactor and thus by inserting negative reactivity. In current designs of liquid-metal-cooled GEN IV and ADS reactors reactivity insertion is based on absorber rods. Although these rod-based systems are duplicated to provide redundancy, they all have a common failure mode as a consequence of their identical operating mechanism, possible causes being a largely deformed core or blockage of the rod guidance channel. In this paper an overview of existing solutions for a complementary shut down system is given and a new concept is proposed. A tube is divided into two sections by means of aluminum seal. In the upper region, above the active core, spherical neutron-absorbing boron carbide particles are placed. In case of overpower and loss of coolant transients, the seal will melt. The absorber balls are then no longer supported and fall down into the active core region inserting a large negative reactivity. This system, which is not rod based, is under investigation, and its feasibility is verified both by experiments and simulations.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Science and technology of nuclear installations
Publication
2012
ISSN
1687-6075
1687-6083
DOI
10.1155/2012/351985
Volume/pages
(2012) , p. 1-9
Article Reference
351985
ISI
000303727200001
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Publication type
Subject
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 24.02.2014
Last edited 14.02.2023
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