Rolls-Royce and Associates Limited

Rodney Strong

Frederick J Gardner

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.

Full pressure passive emergency core cooling and residual heat removal

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. The pressure vessel is divided into an upper chamber and a lower chamber by a casing, the reactor core and primary coolant circuit are arranged in the lower chamber and the pressuriser is arranged in the upper chamber. A plurality of pipes interconnect a steam space of the pressuriser with an upper portion of the primary coolant circuit via ports in the casing. A plurality of re-entrant surge ports interconnect a water space of the pressuriser with a lower portion of the primary coolant circuit. The surge ports have low flow resistance for water from the water space to the primary coolant circuit and high flow resistance in the opposite direction.

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Nottingham, United Kingdom

Rodney Strong