Nuclear reactor with integrated heat exchangers - incorporates vertical movement of each heat exchanger with rotation of core supporting bed, reducing wt. lifted, simplifying arrangement

摘要

The heat exchangers of the nuclear reactor described in the parent patent are modified in that they are suspended from the upper part of the reactor vessel so that they can be moved vertically between a low position in which each exchanger is joined to a core and a high position in which the exchangers are sepd. from the cores. Parent patent reactor incorporated a number of cores arranged in a ring on a supporting bed; a fuel handling appts. mounted above one of the cores; and exchanger suspended above each coref a central column integral with the supporting bed, passing through the reactor enclosure and connected outside it to a system controlling the rotation of the column about its own axis, bringing the cores successively from their normal operating position below an exchanger to a recharging position below a handling appts. By replacing vertical movement of supporting bed by vertical movement of each heat exchanger, supporting bed by vertical movement of each heat exchanger, supporting bed remains in the same horizontal plane and undergoes only a rotary movement about its own axis. The wt. to be moved vertically is reduced to that of a single heat exchanger. In addn., sepn. of the rotary and vertical movements of th bed and the exchangers respectively simplifies the arrangement.