Westinghouse Electric Company LLC

Frank Vereb

William L Brown

Jeffrey T Dederer

Forrest T Johnson

The present invention relates to passive cooling systems and methods for cooling a spent fuel pool in a nuclear power plant in the absence of onsite and offsite power, e.g., in a station blackout event. The systems include a gap formed along the periphery of the spent fuel pool, a heat sink, one or more thermal conductive members, a water supply system for delivering water to at least partially fill the gap and conduct heat generated from the spent fuel pool through the gap to at least one thermal conductive member for transporting heat to the heat sink, and a thermal switch mechanism for activating and deactivating the water supply system. In particular, the passive spent fuel pool cooling systems and methods of the invention are useful when the active spent fuel pool cooling system is unavailable or inoperable.

Alternate passive spent fuel pool cooling systems and methods

A passive containment air cooling system for a nuclear power plant that enhances air flow over a metal containment that houses the reactor system to improve heat transfer out of the containment. The heat transfer is improved by employing swirl vanes to mix the air as it rises over the walls of the containment due to natural circulation and a vortex engine proximate an exit along the cooling air path to increase the quantity of air drawn along the containment.

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Coraopolis, PA, United States of America

Frank Vereb