Assessment of the advantages of a residual heat removal system inside the reactor pressure vessel

摘要

In the framework of research on diversified means for removing the residual heat from pressurized water reactors, the CEA is studying a passive system called RRP (Refroidissement du Reacteur au Primaire, or primary circuit cooling system), which includes integrated heat-exchangers and a layout of the internal structures so as to obtain convection from the primary circuit inside the vessel, whatever the state of the loops. This system is operational for all primary circuit temperatures and pressures, as well as for a wide range of conditions: it is independent of the state of the loops, even if the volume of water in the primary circuit is small, it is compatible with either a passive or an active operation mode, and compatible with any other decay heat removal systems. An evaluation is presented here of the performance of the RRP system in the event of a small primary circuit break in a totally passive operation mode without the intervention of another system. The results of this evaluation show the interest of such a system: a clear increase of the time-delay for the implementation of a low pressure safety injection system, no need for the use of a high pressure safety injection system. (author). 4 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab. (Atomindex citation 28:018874)