Pressure wave damping of liquid metal cooled reactors - by plenum chambers in primary circuit to protect heat exchanger

摘要

A liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor has its core contained in an inner vessel which in turn is surrounded by a reactor tank alos contg. liquid metal. Inert (or similar) protective gas blankets overlie both volumes of liquid metal. The flow path for liquid meetal from the core to the primary/secondary circuit heat exchanger passes through a plenum chamber in both the outward and return lines. The plenum chambers each lie beneath the free liquid surface below a gas blanket. There are pref. at least two pumps in series. One pump extracts from the plenum chamber on the return side, while the other pump extracts from the plenum chamber on the outward side and delivers to the heat exchanger. Pressure waves arising in the primary circuit are thus not transmitted to the heat exchanger, but are dampened by the plenum chambers.