Reactor core design of Gas Turbine High Temperature Reactor 300

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nucengdes.2003.11.028
• Publication Date: 2004-04-14T09:27:58Z
• Authors: Kazuhiko Kunitomi; Shoji Katanishi; Shoji Takada; Xing Yan; Nobumasa Tsuji
• Keywords: Sodium-cooled fast reactor

Abstract Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute (JAERI) has been designing Japan’s original gas turbine high temperature reactor, Gas Turbine High Temperature Reactor 300 (GTHTR300). The greatly simplified design based on salient features of the High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR) with a closed helium gas turbine enables the GTHTR300 a highly efficient and economically competitive reactor to be deployed in early 2010s. Also, the GTHTR300 fully taking advantage of various experiences accumulated in design, construction and operation of the High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) and existing fossil fired gas turbine systems reduces technological development concerning a reactor system and electric generation system. Original design features of this system are the reactor core design based on a newly proposed refueling scheme named sandwich shuffling, conventional steel material usage for a reactor pressure vessel (RPV), an innovative coolant flow scheme and a horizontally installed gas turbine unit. The GTHTR300 can be continuously operated without the refueling for 2 years. Due to these salient features, the capital cost of the GTHTR300 is less than a target cost of 200,000 yen (1667 US$)/kW e, and the electric generation cost is close to a target cost of 4 yen (3.3 US cents)/kW h. This paper describes the original design features focusing on the reactor core design and the in-core structure design, including the innovative coolant flow scheme for cooling the RPV. The present study is entrusted from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.