Method for operating a small HT reactor

摘要

The invention relates to a method for operating a small HT reactor having spherical fuel elements and through the core of which cooling gas flows from the bottom to the top. In order to be able to economise on plant costs in the loading plant, the small reactor is run in a manner known per se in a once-through-then-out operation of the fuel elements, an impermissible radiation loading of the upper graphite core internals being avoided owing to the fact that spherical absorber elements having the same diameter as the fuel elements are added to the latter. The proportion of the absorber quantity is fixed such that the axial power density distribution in the core has a flattened profile and has a maximum in the middle to lower half of the core.