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General Aspects of High-Temperature Reactors

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Modular High-temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Power Plant

Abstract

In this chapter, the principles of high-temperature reactors, especially the application of coated particles as fuel, are explained. The concept of reactors with spherical or prismatic fuel elements is fully developed. Special safety aspects like the self-acting decay heat removal and limitation of the fuel temperature even in case of extreme loss of cooling accidents characterize these concepts of modular HTR. It is possible to retain the radioactive substance practically totally inside the plant in these cases. The reactors can be applied to produce electricity with high efficiency and to supply cogeneration plants using modular units. The possibility to apply dry air cooling makes the system independent from the availability of cooling water and preferable for arid regions. Different fuel cycles have been developed for this type of reactors: low enriched Uranium; use of Thorium; and even breeding is principally possible in the future. High burnup value and good neutron economy are characteristic for this reactor. So far as waste management is considered, no compact storage of spent fuel elements in a water pool (as in case of LWR) is necessary. The spent HTR fuel elements can be stored directly in air-cooled intermediate storage vessels for many decades. Direct final storage of spent fuel elements in geological systems has been developed, although reprocessing will be possible in future too. The HTR-PM for the generation of hot steam for a steam turbine process will be a next step to introduce this system into the energy market. Different large programs have been carried out and are under work today, to establish this technology. A special aspect is the use of modular HTR for future application as heat source for many chemical processes, especially conversion of hydrocarbons, oil processing, and hydrogen production.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Reactor Safety and Reactor, RWTH Aachen University, Jülich, Germany

    Kurt Kugeler

  2. Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Tech, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Zuoyi Zhang

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  1. Kurt Kugeler
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  2. Zuoyi Zhang
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Correspondence to Kurt Kugeler .

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Kugeler, K., Zhang, Z. (2019). General Aspects of High-Temperature Reactors. In: Modular High-temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Power Plant. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57712-7_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57712-7_1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-57712-7

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