Component cooling water system for nuclear power plant

A method for cooling component cooling water in a nuclear power plant, the method comprising:

• providing a containment vessel defining containment space housing a nuclear reactor, a containment enclosure structure surrounding the containment vessel, and an annular water reservoir formed between the containment vessel and containment enclosure structure containing water to provide a heat sink for dissipating thermal energy;
• immersing a shell-less heat exchanger including heat transfer tube bundle in the water within the annular water reservoir, the tube bundle being exposed and wetted directly by the water;
• providing a recirculation piping loop fluidly coupled to the annular water reservoir at an inlet and an outlet;
• extracting water from the annular water reservoir with a pump in the recirculation piping loop;
• discharging the extracted water through the a sparger located below the tube bundle in the annular water reservoir, the sparger configured to discharged the extracted water upwards through the tube bundle;
• circulating heated component cooling water from the plant through the tube bundle;
• and
• cooling the heated component cooling water by transferring heat to the annular water reservoir.

A method for cooling component cooling water in a nuclear power plant, the method comprising:

• providing a containment vessel defining containment space housing a nuclear reactor, a containment enclosure structure surrounding the containment vessel, an annular water reservoir formed between the containment vessel and containment enclosure structure containing water to provide a heat sink for dissipating thermal energy, and a plurality of substantially radial fins protruding outwards from the containment vessel into the annular water reservoir to define a plurality of bays;
• immersing a shell-less heat exchanger in the water of a first bay within the annular water reservoir, the heat exchanger including heat transfer tube bundle having a plurality of bare tubes exposed directly by the water;
• providing a recirculation piping loop fluidly coupled to the annular water reservoir, the recirculation piping loop including an inlet fluidly coupled to a second bay of the annular water reservoir and an outlet including a sparger fluidly coupled to the annular reservoir and immersed in the water in the first bay;
• pumping water from the annular water reservoir in the recirculation piping loop between the first and second bays;
• circulating heated component cooling water from the plant through the tube bundle;
• and
• cooling the heated component cooling water by transferring heat to the annular water reservoir.