Detailed thermal‐hydraulic analyses of the S∧4 reactor are performed to reduce the maximum fuel temperature of the Submersion‐Subcritical Safe Space (S∧4) reactor to below 1300 K. The fuel pellet diameter is reduced from 1.315 cm to 1.25 cm, decreasing the thermal resistance of the pellets and each of the 1.54 cm diameter coolant channels in the reactor core are replaced with several 0.3 cm ID channels to increase the effective heat transfer area and to encourage mixing of the flowing helium‐28% xenon coolant. The calculated maximum fuel temperature decreased from more than 1900 K to 1302 K and the relative pressure drop across the reactor core increased from 1.98% to 2.57% of the inlet pressure. Moving the concentric inlet and outlet pipes 1 cm towards the center of the reactor core encouraged more flow through the center region, further reducing the maximum fuel temperature by 14 degrees to 1288 K, with a negligible effect on the core pressure losses.
Thermal‐Hydraulic Analyses of the Submersion‐Subcritical Safe Space (S∧4) Reactor
SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL FORUM-STAIF 2007: 11th Conf Thermophys.Applic.in Micrograv.; 24th Symp Space Nucl.Pwr.Propulsion; 5th Conf Hum/Robotic Techn & Vision Space Explor.; 5th Symp Space Coloniz.; 4th Symp New Frontrs & Future Con ; 2007 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 880 , 1 ; 261-270
2007-01-30
10 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Comparison of Reactivity Control Systems for the Submersion Subcritical Safe Space (S∧4) Reactor
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