Regular Article

Start-up, operation and thermal-hydraulic analysis of a self-propelling supercritical CO₂ heat removal system coupled to a pressurized water reactor

¹ University of Stuttgart Institute of Nuclear Technology and Energy Systems (IKE), Pfaffenwaldring 31, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
² Simulator Centre of KSG | GfS, Essen, Germany
³ University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

^* e-mail: hofer@ike.uni-stuttgart.de

Received: 23 June 2022
Received in final form: 21 September 2022
Accepted: 14 October 2022
Published online: 25 November 2022

Abstract

The supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂¹) heat removal system, which is based on a closed Brayton cycle with sCO₂ as a working fluid, is an innovative, self-propelling and modular heat removal system for existing and future nuclear power plants. By changing the number of CO₂ cycles, the heat removal capacity can be adapted. In this paper, up to four sCO₂ cycles are analyzed in interaction with a pressurized water reactor, using the thermal-hydraulic system code ATHLET and considering a long-term station blackout and loss of ultimate heat sink scenario with conservatively high and low decay heat curves. The presented start-up procedure for the heat removal system might require further optimization due to the non-linear thermal gradients. Independent from the start-up, a heat removal system with three or four CO₂ cycles keeps the primary loop temperatures sufficiently low. However, with only three cycles, the core is almost uncovered, and the danger of recriticality may occur due to cold leg deboration. Controlling the turbine inlet temperature via the turbomachinery speed and subsequent shutdown of single cycles successfully adapts the operation of the heat removal system to the declining decay heat. This enables reliable decay heat removal for more than 72 h.