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US 9,431,136 B2Granted
Stable startup system for nuclear reactor
AssigneeNuScale Power, LLC
InventorsJose N. Reyes, Jr., John T. Groome, Qiao Wu, Brian G. Woods, Todd S. Palmer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A stable startup system includes a reactor vessel containing coolant, a reactor core submerged in the coolant, and a heat exchanger configured to remove heat from the coolant. The stable startup system further includes one or more heaters configured to add heat to the coolant during a startup operation and prior to the reactor core going critical.
Claims20
A method, comprising:
- activating a heating system prior to withdrawing one or more control rods associated with an initialization of a reactor core to achieve reactor criticality, wherein the reactor core is at least partially surrounded by a primary coolant that feeds into a riser located in a nuclear reactor vessel;
- introducing heat to the primary coolant, in response to activating the heating system, at one or more insertion points located within the riser at an elevation above the reactor core;
- circulating the primary coolant through the reactor core while the primary coolant is heated to an initial operating temperature;
- and
- withdrawing, at least partially, the one or more control rods from the reactor core after the primary coolant is heated to the initial operating temperature.
2 more elements
A method, comprising:
- activating a heating system prior to initializing a reactor core, wherein the reactor core is at least partially surrounded by a primary coolant that feeds into a riser located in a nuclear reactor vessel, and wherein at least a portion of the riser is located at an elevation that is above the reactor core;
- introducing heat to the primary coolant, in response to activating the heating system, at one or more insertion points located within the portion of the riser;
- circulating the primary coolant through the reactor core while the primary coolant is heated to an initial operating temperature;
- and
- initializing the reactor core after the primary coolant is heated to the initial operating temperature, to achieve reactor criticality.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.