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AssigneeRolls-Royce and Associates Limited
InventorsFrederick J. Gardner, Rodney Strong
Estimating the term…
A water cooled nuclear reactor comprises a reactor core, a primary water coolant circuit and a pressurizer arranged as an integral unit in a pressure vessel. A passive full pressure emergency core cooling and residual heat removal system is provided which comprises a tank having a reserve supply of water positioned above the primary water coolant circuit or the reactor core. The tank is interconnected to the primary water coolant circuit by a first pipe and a second pipe. The first pipe has an inverted U-bend which passes through a water space and a steam space of the pressurizer to form a vapor lock. The first pipe and second pipe are also provided with hydrostatic thermal seals. The tank has one or more residual heat removal circuits comprising a heat exchanger positioned in the tank and a heat exchanger outside the tank. Movement of the vapor lock from the inverted U-bend allows cool water from the tank to flow into the primary water coolant circuit and hot water to flow into the tank to be cooled. The vapor lock detects abnormalities in the reactor core and primary water coolant circuit and in the water level in the pressurizer, and automatically initiates full pressure passive emergency cooling and residual heat removal.
A water cooled nuclear reactor comprising a pressure vessel, a reactor core, a primary water coolant circuit, a pressuriser, the reactor core and at least a portion of the primary water coolant circuit being located in the pressure vessel, the primary water coolant circuit being arranged to cool the reactor core, the pressuriser having a water space and a steam space, at least one full pressure reactor core cooler means, first pipe means to interconnect an upper portion of the primary water coolant circuit with each full pressure reactor core cooler means, second pipe means to interconnect a lower portion of the primary water coolant circuit with each full pressure reactor core cooler means, each first pipe means having a first inverted U-bend, each first inverted U-bend of the first pipe means passes through the water space and steam space of the pressuriser to form a vapour lock within each first inverted U-bend, whereby each vapour lock in normal operation substantially prevents a natural circulation of primary water coolant from the primary water coolant circuit through the first pipe means, the full pressure reactor core cooler means and the second pipe means to the primary water coolant circuit, each vapour lock upon abnormal operation of any of the reactor core, the primary water coolant circuit, or the pressuriser thereby being displaced from the first inverted U-bend to allow a natural circulation of primary water coolant from the primary water coolant circuit through the first pipe means, the full pressure reactor cooler means and the second pipe means to allow relatively cool primary water coolant in the full pressure reactor core cooler means to flow into or through the primary water coolant circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.