General Electric Company

Harold A Careway

Larry E Fennern

Li C Hsu

A reactor building assembly includes a pressure vessel within a containment vessel surrounded in turn by first and second enclosures defining respective first and second chambers. A method of operation includes channeling fresh air downwardly by gravity through the second chamber and then channeling the fresh air laterally through the first enclosure adjacent to the bottom thereof and into the first chamber. The air is then channeled upwardly by natural buoyancy through the first chamber for cooling the first chamber and mixing with stale air therein. The stale air is then discharged from the first chamber upwardly through the top of the first enclosure to the environs. A building inlet is disposed at the second enclosure top for receiving the fresh air, a building outlet is disposed at the top of the first enclosure for discharging the stale air, and a transfer duct is disposed through the first enclosure adjacent to the bottom thereof for selectively joining in flow communication the first and second chambers for allowing natural convection circulation of the fresh air downwardly through the second chamber, laterally through the transfer duct, and upwardly through the first chamber.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Harold A Careway