DESIGN, FABRICATION AND STARTUP TESTING IN THE COMPACT INTEGRAL EFFECTS TEST FACILITY IN SUPPORT OF FLUORIDE-SALT-COOLED, HIGH-TEMPERATURE REACTOR TECHNOLOGY

摘要

The capability to validate integral transient response models is a key issue for licensing new reactor designs. The Compact Integral Effects Test (CIET 1.0) facility reproduces the thermal hydraulic response of fluoride-salt-cooled, high-temperature reactors (FHRs) under forced and natural circulation operation. CIET 1.0 provides validating data to confirm the predicted performance of the direct reactor auxiliary cooling system, used for natural-circulation-driven decay heat removal in FHRs, under a set of reference licensing basis events. CIET 1.0 uses a simulant fluid, Dowtherm A oil, which, at relatively low temperatures (50-120°C), matches the Prandtl, Reynolds and Grashof numbers of the major liquid salts simultaneously, at approximately 50% geometric scale and heater power under 2% of prototypical conditions. CIET 1.0 has been designed, fabricated, filled with Dowtherm A oil and operated. Isothermal pressure drop tests were completed, with extensive pressure data collection to determine friction losses in the system. The project then entered a phase of heated tests, from parasitic heat loss tests to more complex feedback control tests and natural circulation experiments. This paper presents the scaling strategy, design and fabrication aspects, and startup testing results from CIET 1.0.