Liquid-cooled nuclear reactor having a nuclear-element decay store cooled in the natural circulation

摘要

For liquid-cooled nuclear reactors having a tank-internal decay store for spent core elements (46), especially for liquid-metal-cooled breeder reactors, it is proposed to cool the decay store not only during emergency operation but also in normal operation just by natural-convection flow. For this purpose, the spent fuel elements are accommodated such that they are screened from the reactor core so that no significant power is released into them exceeding the afterheat. In addition to the known separating wall (7) which splits the reactor tank (1) into a hot header (31) and a cold header (32), there is a further separating wall (8) so that an intermediate space (9) is formed. Temperature conditions occur in this intermediate space which promote the coolant circulation through the fuel elements (46). IMAGE