Combustion Engineering, Inc.

Douglas W Stuteville

Richard C Noyes

Shakir U Zaman

A sensor chamber having one cavity containing coolant separated by a diaphragm from another cavity containing a fixed mass of inert gas is located within a safety assembly of a liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactor. The liquid cavity is in fluid communication with the coolant outside the chamber through a flow limiting orifice. An actuating bellows in fluid communication with the gas cavity is in contact with coolant outside the chamber and is connected to a push rod, which serves as a trigger for a poison bundle release mechanism. During slow changes in reactor coolant pressure experienced under normal operation, the diaphragm moves to equalize the gas cavity and liquid cavity pressures with the coolant pressure outside the chamber. The actuating bellows does not move because it is biased so that a threshold pressure difference is required before it will expand. Under a more rapid drop in coolant pressure, such as is associated with a loss of forced flow, the threshold is overcome and the actuating bellows will also move, thereby triggering the release mechanism to shut down the reactor. In an alternate embodiment, the actuating bellows is connected to the liquid cavity rather than to the gas cavity.

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Granby, CT, United States of America

Douglas W Stuteville