WO2013180598A1

WO2013180598A1 - Reactor assembly

Info

Publication number: WO2013180598A1
Application number: PCT/RU2013/000226
Authority: WO
Inventors: Олег Николаевич МОРОЗОВ
Original assignee: Morozov Oleg Nikolaevich
Priority date: 2012-03-20
Filing date: 2013-03-19
Publication date: 2013-12-05
Also published as: RU2012110339A; RU2522139C2

Abstract

The invention relates to nuclear power engineering, specifically to nuclear reactors, and can be used for the production of heat energy and electrical energy, for the combustion of transuranic nuclides and also for the production of nuclear fuel and radioactive materials. The reactor assembly comprises a reactor, the vessel (1) of which contains a reactor core, a cooling circuit for said reactor core comprising a heat exchanger connected to a coolant circulation line, and also a tank for the emergency dumping of fuel solution, connected to the reactor core. The reactor core in the reactor vessel takes the form of two cavities ("a" and "b") separated by a partition (2) installed in the vessel, the cavities being interconnected at the bottom part of the reactor vessel by means of a gap (3) formed between the lower edge of the partition (2) and the bottom of the vessel, and at the top of the reactor vessel by means of pipelines (4), each of which is equipped with a circulation pump (5), and wherein the assembly is equipped with at least one tank (6) positioned in one of the reactor cores and connected to the heat exchanger of the cooling circuit of said core, and wherein a plurality of containers may be installed in the reactor core, each of which is connected to the coolant circulation line.

Description

Reactor installation.

The field of technology.

The invention relates to nuclear energy, namely to nuclear reactors and can be used to produce thermal, electric energy, for the burning of transuranic nuclides, as well as for the production of nuclear fuel and radioactive preparations.

The prior art.

Known nuclear power plant containing a housing with a lid, which houses the active zone and the steam generator, separated from each other by the shell.

A sealed cap is installed above the reactor cover, inside of which there is a second-third circuit heat exchanger, surrounded by an outer shell, with a gap relative to the inner surface of the cap and dividing the holes in the reactor cover, through which feed water passes into the lower feed pipes and openings through which steam passes exiting the steam lift tubes of the steam generator.

A part of the internal reactor space is separated from the primary circuit of the reactor by a cup-shaped shell and connected to the volume of the primary circuit through openings or a pipe and forms a pressure compensator of the primary circuit (CM.RU N ° 2040051, ICJI.G21C1 / 00, 1995)

During the operation of the installation, the in-reactor volume of the body and through the openings, part of the space between the body and the shell. filled with coolant. Then gas is supplied to the pressure compensator and initial pressure is created in the primary circuit, after which the reactor is heated.

The primary coolant, heating up in the core, rises inside the shell and enters the steam generator, where, having cooled, it falls in the space between the shell and the shell under the active zone.

The coolant of the second circuit, being heated in the steam generator, turns into steam and rises through the lifting steam pipes through the holes in the lid in the annular gap between the separation shell and the sealed cap and enters the heat exchanger of the second - third circuit, where it transfers heat to the third circuit and condenses.

Condensate flows through the openings in the lid into the lowering feed pipes and into the steam generator.

As a result of the analysis of the implementation of the known reactor installation, it should be noted that it has a low efficiency and for its operation, periodic loading of raw materials into the active zone is necessary.

The closest in technical essence to the proposed technical solution is a reactor installation consisting of an active zone placed in the neutron reflector body and a pipeline in which a circulation pump is installed, connected to a heat exchanger connected to a separator (see RU J4O90609, class G21C1 / 24, 2010)

The installation is equipped with a mixer connected to the separator, and the mixer outlet is connected by a pipeline to the active zone, which also has a capacity (tank) for emergency discharge of the fuel solution, immersed in the tank of the passive heat removal system.

The core, circulation pump, heat exchanger, separator, mixer are connected by pipelines into a single circuit of the fuel solution circulation (the first circulation circuit).

The separator is also connected to the mixer by pipelines, through which respectively the liquid metal coolant and the purified nuclear fuel enter the mixer from the separator. TO one of the pipelines connected to the tank fueling nuclear fuel.

The separator outputs are designed to output the separated decay products of the fuel solution.

The heat exchanger has outputs for connecting the payload (second circulation circuit).

The active zone is placed in the neutron reflector case, inside of which a gap is formed, a solution of nuclear raw materials circulating in the gap serving as a neutron reflector. This gap is connected through pipelines through a circulation pump to a separator equipped with a fresh nuclear feed tank and a nuclear fuel removal pipe.

The gap is also associated with a heat exchanger having outputs for connecting a cooler circulation system.

The gap cavity, pump, separator, heat exchanger are combined by pipelines and form a circulation loop through the gap of the raw material solution in the liquid metal (third circulation loop) to cool the core.

During the operation of the reactor installation, as a rule, all its circuits function simultaneously.

The fuel solution is constantly pumped through the active zone by a circulation pump and, passing through the active zone, nuclear fuel enters into a chain reaction due to the presence of a neutron reflector around it and the optimal shape of the active zone.

During the chain reaction, the coolant with nuclear fuel is heated to a high temperature and enters the heat exchanger, while remaining inside the pipes of the primary circulation circuit. Immediately upon leaving the core, the chain reaction ceases due to the fact that The absence of a reflector and the shape of the tubes create a large neutron loss.

Therefore, after leaving the core, the fuel solution acts as a coolant. The solution enters the heat exchanger, where it transfers its heat to the refrigerant pumped through the heat exchanger through the pipes of the second circulation circuit.

The heated refrigerant of this circuit can be used, for example, for heating rooms and / or generating electricity, for which a turbine and an electric generator can be built into it.

The cooled solution of nuclear fuel passing through the primary heat exchanger enters the separator, where the solution is divided into components - the nuclear fuel is separated from the liquid metal coolant and decay products. The liquid metal coolant enters through the pipeline to the mixer, and the nuclear fuel purified from decay products enters the mixer through the pipeline, where they are mixed again.

If necessary, replenish the mixture with nuclear fuel from the tank.

The concentration of the fissile isotope in the solution is determined by current tasks and with the help of a mixer it can be flexibly changed during operation over a very wide range.

From the mixer, the solution with nuclear fuel again enters the reactor core by means of a circulation pump, and then work continues similarly to the above.

During the operation of the reactor, the feed solution circulating in the body (in the gap) cools the reactor core from the outside, thus protecting it from overheating. This allows you to reach high temperatures inside the core without the threat of melting. If it is necessary to cool the raw material solution heated in contact with the active zone, a heat exchanger is installed in the third circuit (raw material circulation), which ensures a decrease in the temperature of the raw material solution and additional heat.

As a result of the analysis of the design of this installation, it should be noted that the known design of the reactor provides effective heat removal from the core, while all the heat produced in the core is immediately removed from it together with the fuel solution in which it is produced, and enters a heat exchanger, the heat transfer efficiency of which using known means can be done almost any. This allows you to increase the energy intensity and temperature in the core.

If necessary, emergency shutdown of the reactor, all the heated fuel solution is dumped into the emergency dump tank. Here, the chain reaction ceases due to a large loss of neutrons, and the residual heat is transferred to the water jacket and goes to its evaporation.

Thus, the emergency "cooling down" of the reactor occurs without the participation of any pumping systems. This ensures that the reactor is cooled down even in the event of an emergency power outage and shutdown of the circulation pumps.

However, this installation has an extended primary circuit extending outside the reactor vessel, in which nuclear fuel and highly radioactive fission products circulate together with the coolant.

The length of the primary circuit increases the likelihood of leakage, and with it the risk of breakthrough of highly radioactive substances in the environment or in the coolant of the secondary circuit.

This reduces the safety of the reactor. b

Also, the presence of only two loops makes it difficult to use coolants actively interacting with neutrons in the first loop (for example, sodium or liquid melts of some salts). With the passage of the active zone, such a coolant becomes radioactive and can infect the coolant of the second circuit, which will transmit radioactivity, for example, to a turbogenerator and lead to personnel irradiation.

Disclosure of the essence of the invention.

The technical result of the present invention is the development of a reactor facility operating in a continuous cycle, with high efficiency, safe in operation, in which radioactive substances (especially decay products), circulating along the primary circuit, always remain inside the reactor vessel.

This prevents them from entering the environment, increasing reactor safety.

The presence of an intermediate circuit makes it possible to safely use substances actively interacting with neutrons in the first circuit.

Such substances are, for example, sodium or alkali metal salts.

In the presence of three loops, the coolant of the third loop is protected from contamination by radioactivity under all conditions.

The specified technical result is ensured by the fact that in a reactor installation containing a reactor in the housing of which an active zone is located, its cooling circuit, including a heat exchanger connected to the refrigerant circulation line, as well as a tank for emergency discharge of the fuel solution connected with the active zone, is new that the reactor core is formed in the reactor casing in the form of two cavities separated by a partition installed in the casing, the cavities communicating with each other in the lower part of the reactor casing by means of a gap formed between the lower section of the baffle and the bottom of the casing, and in the upper part by means of circulation pipelines, the installation being equipped with at least one capacity associated with the heat exchanger of the cooling circuit of the core and placed in one of the cavities of the core.

In the core, several tanks can be installed, each of which is connected to the refrigerant circulation line.

Graphic explanation of the invention.

The invention is illustrated by the following description of the design and drawings, where

in FIG. 1 - reactor installation, general view;

in FIG. 2 - reactor installation, side view, axial section;

in FIG. 3 - reactor installation, horizontal section along the central part of the reactor.

The best example of the proposed reactor installation. The reactor installation contains a reactor, the volume of the housing 1 of which is the active zone.

The volume of the housing 1 by a partition 2 is divided into two cavities.

The most appropriate from the point of view of manufacturability and operation, so that the housing 1 has a cylindrical shape, which does not mean that its shape cannot be different, for example, oval or multifaceted.

The dimensions of the case can be different and are dictated mainly by the functional purpose of the installation. The partition 2 is made in such a way that it forms a closed volume, for example, has in the cross section the shape of a cylinder, oval or polyhedron. The partition 2 is installed in the reactor vessel 1 in such a way that its lower (in the plane of the drawing) section is located at a certain distance from the bottom of the vessel 1, forming a gap 3.

The shape of the partition, as a rule, repeats the shape of the housing 1 and is located in the housing so that their surfaces are equidistant. This is the most technologically advanced.

The cavity formed by the inner surface of the wall of the housing 1 and the outer surface of the wall of the partition 2 is designated “a”, and the cavity inside the partition is “b”.

Cavities "a" and "b" are communicated with each other in the lower part of the reactor through the slot 3, as already noted above, and in the upper - by means of circulation pipelines 4. A circulation pump 5 is installed in the pipeline.

The number of pipelines 4 can be different and depends mainly on the size of the reactor.

Cavities "a", "b" and pipelines 4 with circulation pumps 5 form the first circulation circuit designed to circulate the fuel solution. It is very important that this circuit does not go beyond the reactor.

In the cavity "a" there are containers (for example, cylinders) 6, pipelines 7 connected to heat exchangers 8. Circulating pumps 9 are installed in the pipelines connecting them. Tanks 6, heat exchangers 8 and pipelines connecting them form a second circulation circuit intended for circulation a coolant that does not contain nuclear components (for example, salt, liquid metal, etc.).

The number of tanks and heat exchangers of this circuit can be different and depends mainly on the size of the reactor, its productivity, the type of fuel solution used. The heat exchanger 8 (each heat exchanger, if there are several) by pipelines 10 is connected to the circulation line (to hell, not shown) by means of refrigerant circulation pumps (for example, water) (to hell, not shown). This is the third circuit.

It is designed to cool the coolant of the second circuit and supply heated to a predetermined temperature refrigerant (water) of the third circuit for further use. For example, in a turbine of a power unit for generating electric energy or a heating network for providing consumers with heat and hot water.

Cavities “a” and “b” are connected by a pipeline (not indicated by a position) to a tank 1 1 (for example, a tank) for emergency discharge of the fuel mixture. The tank 11 is placed in the tank 12 of the passive heat removal. Tanks 11 and 12 may be several.

The fuel solution used in the installation is a coolant, which can be used as a liquid metal (for example, sodium, bismuth, etc.) or the melt of any chemical compound (for example, salt).

Nuclear fuel (uranium, plutonium, thorium) or its chemical compound (salt, oxide, carbide, nitride, etc.) is introduced into the coolant.

The reactor installation operates as follows.

For the operation of the installation, the cavities “a” and “b” of the reactor vessel 1 are filled to the top with fuel melt or solution. Turn on the circulation pumps 5, which suck in the heated coolant from the upper part of the cavity "b" and pump it through pipes 4 to the upper part of the cavity "a".

On it, the hot heat carrier goes down, flowing around and warming up the containers 6, and through the slot 3, the internal volume of the active zone enters again into the lower part of the cavity “b”. Here it rises from the bottom up to the circulation pumps. Thus, the fuel solution circulates along the primary circuit, which is entirely located in the reactor vessel 1.

Inside the active zone, due to the optimal geometry of the casing (i.e., such that for a given volume, its surface area is close to the minimum, for example, spherical) and the presence of a reflector (it is not indicated in statics), a nuclear reaction proceeds.

It heats nuclear fuel and primary coolant to a high temperature. Due to convection, the heated fuel mixture rises, facilitating the operation of the circulation pumps. Here, the heated mixture is absorbed by the circulation pumps 5 and through the pipes 4 enters the cavity "a" of the active zone. Here, under the influence of gravity and under the pressure of the pumps, the mixture drops down, giving off heat to the tanks 6 of the second circulation circuit along the road and heating the coolant of the second circuit. Next, the partially cooled fuel mixture through the slot 3 enters the lower part of the cavity "b" and again rises up to the inlet of the circulation pumps 5.

The coolant of the second circuit, pumped by the pumps 9 through the cylinders 6 from the bottom to the top, heats up and passes through the pipes 7 to the heat exchanger 8, where it transfers heat to the coolant of the third circuit, and, partially cooled, is fed back to the input of the pumps 9.

The coolant of the third circuit (for example, water) pumped from the bottom to the top through the pipes by 10 pumps (to hell, not shown) takes heat from the coolant of the second circuit and transfers it to the payload.

Industrial applicability

The heated refrigerant of this circuit can be used, for example, for heating rooms and / or generating electricity, for which a turbine and an electric generator can be built into it. Along with heat production, this reactor can be used to transmute long-lived radioactive waste in its core.

Decomposition products remaining from solid-state reactors (for example, minor actinides) can be introduced into its primary fuel mixture. Here, under the influence of neutrons, they will transmute into less hazardous substances, which are already suitable for safe disposal.

Such a reactor-burner is capable of radically changing the composition and amount of waste from the radiochemical industry, making their reliable disposal possible.

The undoubted advantage of the design of this installation is that the medium circulating along each circuit does not mix with the media of other circuits.

All units of the reactor installation that emit radioactive radiation during operation (for example, the core, heat exchangers, circulation circuits, etc.) are covered with a reflector and bioprotection (not shown in devil) that protect personnel from radiation.

This design of the reactor has the advantage that it solves the fundamental problem arising from the operation of nuclear reactors - efficient heat dissipation.

The reactor can produce heat in any quantity, but only on condition that everything generated in this case, a huge amount of heat is immediately removed from it.

With this reactor design, all the heat produced in the core is immediately removed from it together with the fuel solution in which it is produced and transferred to the second circuit, where practically any heat transfer efficiency can be done using known means. This allows you to raise the energy intensity and temperature in the core to any desired high level. The practical limit of temperature increase in the core is only the refractoriness of the materials from which the walls of the core and the primary loop are made.

Since there are neither fuel elements nor any structures inside the core, there is no threat of their melting. Such a reactor is not afraid of a loss of coolant accident, since this also means the loss of nuclear fuel with the inevitable shutdown of the reactor.

If necessary, emergency shutdown of the reactor, all the heated fuel solution is discharged into the tank 1 1 emergency discharge, immersed in the tank 12 of the system of passive heat removal, filled with water, fed through the pipeline (not shown).

Here, the chain reaction ceases due to a large loss of neutrons, and the residual heat is transferred to the water jacket and goes to its evaporation.

Thus, the emergency "cooling down" of the reactor occurs without the participation of any pumping systems. This ensures that the reactor is cooled down even in the event of a power outage and shutdown of the circulation pumps.

Devices (to hell, not shown) can be built into the first circulation circuit (or in parallel with it), which can change the fuel composition in real time, removing decay products from it and adding fresh nuclear fuel.

The process of fuel reloading, as well as the removal of radioactive waste from it, can be carried out without stopping the reactor, therefore it is not susceptible to poisoning by decay products and can constantly operate at maximum power, and its fuel efficiency can be close to 100%. Radioactive waste removed from the reactor can be reprocessed with the release of valuable radioactive preparations from them.

Around the core of such a reactor can be located nuclear raw materials, for example, uranium-238 or thorium-232 (not shown), which, under the influence of neutrons emitted by the reactor, will be converted into nuclear fuel.

Thus, this reactor installation can produce several types of products, that is, it is multifunctional.

Claims

CLAIM

A reactor installation comprising a reactor, in the housing (1) of which there is an active zone for a fuel solution, a cooling circuit including a heat exchanger connected to a refrigerant circulation line, as well as a tank for emergency discharge of a fuel solution connected with an active zone, characterized in that the active the reactor zone is formed in the reactor vessel (1) in the form of two cavities (“a” and “b”) separated by a partition (2) installed in the vessel, the cavities (“a” and “b”) communicating with each other in the lower part reactor vessels (1) in the middle the gap (3) formed between the lower cut of the partition (2) and the bottom of the housing, and in the upper part by means of one or more circulation pipelines (4), each of which can be connected to the pump (5), and the installation is equipped with at least one capacity (6) associated with the heat exchanger of the cooling circuit of the core and placed in one of the cavities of the core.