Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : The 30th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering (ICONE30)
Date : May 21, 2023 - May 26, 2023
The molten salt reactor (MSR) is one of the six advanced reactor concepts declared by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), which can be characterized by attractive attributes such as inherent safety, sustainable development, nuclear nonproliferation, natural resource protection, and economic efficiency. MSR can passively transfer the residual heat in the core to the environment by establishing the natural circulation after the reactor deactivates. However, the decay heat in the circuit piping will affect the heat removal capacity of the circuit. In this paper, to obtain the thermal characteristics of this passive system, the analysis basis of the natural circulation model is given to clarify the influence of molten salt properties and circuit structure on the natural circulation. By writing the code to design and establish the natural circulation model of the main loop of decay heat discharge from the liquid molten salt reactor, calculate and give the temperature distribution in the loop. The alteration of critical parameters can investigate the capacity of the reactor vessel to take away decay heat through natural circulation under certain temperature rise conditions. The results show that the decay heat in the system loop pipe reduces the heat that can take away from the reactor core. According to the results of the importance analysis, fuel salt density, specific heat capacity, and height difference between hot and cold cores are the critical parameters affecting the natural circulation capacity. When the parameter value changes by 15%, the capacity of decay heat discharge increases by 17.37%, 13.99%, and 11.82%.
