Product Description of a PWR: Pressurized Water Reactor

By: Michael Gavalek

Purpose
This packet provides information about the components of a pressurized water reactor. The packet will help the understanding of each of the components of the reactor core and supporting components that harness the energy produced by fission.

Audience Analysis
This information introduces the reactor type to already employed nuclear engineers or reactor operators. A general knowledge of nuclear reactor physics and atomic structure will benefit to the understanding of the the PWR design. This information would be located in an information binder for reference on the components and different processes or on a reference website.

Introduction
In a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), the main coolant fluid in the reactor is pressurized to about 2,200 psia via a pressurizer to not allow for boiling. The pressurized water is pumped to a steam generator where the heat of the pressurized water generates steam and fed into a turbine chamber that generates electricity. This process is illustrated in figure 1. The main focus will be the components that make up the primary reactor system inside the containment building: reactor vessel, reactor coolant/moderator, steam generators, and pressurizer. In the power loop section, a more in-depth analysis of the secondary system describes how the second reactor coolant generates electricity.

Figure 1: The general layout of a PWR plant

Science of Nuclear Power

Figure 2: A stable nucleus bombarded with a neutron then undergoing spontaneous decay Fission simply means to break apart. In a fission reaction shown in figure 2, the unstable parent nucleus undergoes decay by splitting apart into two daughter nuclei and releases neutrons. The neutrons, released from the parent nucleus, interact with other stable nuclei and continue the decay process. The chain reaction happens within seconds like dropping a ball into a container of set mouse traps, setting off one mouse trap that sets off all the rest.

Power Generation (Power Loop)

The reactor coolant, typically water, is pressurized to 2200 psia or 150 bars and pumped into the reactor vessel which contains the core. Reactor coolant flows through the reactor core via nozzle systems to both cool the reactor and to transfer the heat energy out of the reactor vessel. Reactor coolant pumps move the reactor coolant to a steam generator, where steam is produced and moved to the turbine system. The steam then enters a condenser chamber and pumped back into the steam generator. Several companies such as Westinghouse and Babcock & Wilcox and various plant designs such as combustion engineering for one example have various arrangements, however, they all have the major components such a reactor vessel, reactor coolant pumps, steam generators, and a pressurizer. Figures 3, 4, and 5 show several reactor containment systems from the companies mentioned.

Figure 3: Two Loop Westinghouse Design This design uses two reactor coolant pumps and two steam generators. The average power of this arrangement ranges anywhere up to 500 MW.

Figure 4: Babcock & Wilcox design The Babcock & Wilcox design features two reactor coolant pumps with two Once-Through steam generators. This arrangement ranges up to 850 MW.

Figure 5: Combustion Engineering Design The combustion engineering design features two reactor coolant pumps with combustion engine steam generators. The power output ranges from less than 500 MW to more than 1200 MW.

Reactor Vessel
The reactor vessel holds the reactor core and all supplemental support structures and alignment devices. The four major components are the reactor vessel, the reactor core, the core barrel, and the upper internals package. The reactor vessel is a cylinder with two hemispherical ends, like a pill you take for medicine with sticks coming out. The top part of the reactor is designed to be removed for refueling or any maintenance that is needed to the reactor core or supporting equipment. Based on the amount of reactor coolant loops, the number of inlet and outlet nozzles varies from one to four inlets and outlets. The reactor vessel is constructed with manganese molybdenum steel, with all areas exposed to the reactor coolant coated in stainless steel to increase corrosion resistance. The core barrel slides down into the reactor vessel and houses the fuel like a spice rack. The fuel assemblies will sit inside the core barrel on top of the core support plate. On the sides of the core barrel, irradiated specimen holders are in place to test how radiation affects the fuel. The upper internals package sits on top of the fuel as a guide for the control rods when they are pulled out of the fuel for normal reactor operation.

Figure 6: reactor vessel The Reactor vessel cross section shows the core barrel, reactor core, and various other parts.

Reactor Coolant/Moderator
For PWRs, light water is used as the primary reactor coolant. Some reactor designs use heavy water rather than light water where heavy water contains deuterium. The use for one or the other depends on the reactor design specifications.

Remember: for a PWR, there are two water cycles; one cycle is the primary reactor coolant cycle which has direct contact with the reactor core, and the second cycle does not. The important factor of a PWR is the primary reactor coolant is pressurized. By pressurizing the reactor coolant (In most cases the reactor coolant is water. It does not have to be.) it prevents the water from boiling when the temperature rises to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Primary reactor coolant pumps force reactor coolant into the reactor to cool the reactor down and moderate the fission reaction. A moderator acts as sludge for neutrons to slow down to desirable energies or speeds so uranium will accept the excited neutron and continue the fission chain reaction. If the water temperature increases to undesirable levels, the density of water and the number of collisions between the water molecules and neutrons decrease. It leads to an increase in fast neutron population. That increase decreases the potential fission reactions with fuel which makes the PWR self-regulating.

Figure 7: Reactor coolant flow The reactor coolant flows in from the inlet nozzle and travels through the reactor core, removing heat, and out the outlet.

The general flow path of the reactor coolant (Figure 7): The reactor coolant enters the reactor vessel via the inlet nozzle system and hits the core barrel The core barrel forces the water to flow downward between the reactor vessel wall and the core barrel Once the reactor coolant reaches the bottom of the reactor vessel, the flow turns upward through the fuel assemblies The coolant flows through the fuel assembles removing the heat from the fission reaction The reactor coolant then leaves out the outlet nozzle to a steam generator.

Reactor Core and Fuel

A reactor core shown in figure 6 has a diameter of approx. 12 feet. Inside, it consists of 200 fuel assemblies with a square cross section of approximately eight and a half inches on its side. A fuel assembly is shown in figure 8. Fuel assemblies are arranged in a 17 by 17 or a 16 by 16 square array. In the fuel assemblies, about one third of the fuel assembly contains control rods which are strategically placed by control rod guides. The rest of the space is used for core instrumentation and extension of core life. The fuel rods consist of uranium oxide pellets with an enrichment ranging from 2.1 to 3.1 percent of uranium 235. The pellets shown in figure 6 are 0.32 inches in diameter and 0.6 inches in length. The fabrication process leaves a radial clearance between the cladding of the fuel pellets of about 0.003 inches. The pellets are enclosed in cylindrical Zircalloy-4 sheathes four meters long and a diameter of one centimeter. Zircalloy is a zirconium alloy that has low neutron absorption and helps the neutron economy in the PWR.

Figure 8: Fuel Assembly

Pressurizer

Figure 9: Pressurizer The Pressurizer monitors pressure levels by heating up or releasing primary reactor coolant. Shown in figure 9, the pressurizer maintains the reactor coolant system by controlling the pressure of the reactor coolant. The pressure is controlled by the use of electrical heaters, relief valves, and a pressurizer system.

The pressurizer consists of a cylindrical vessel with electrical heaters at the base. Towards the top of the vessel, relief and safety valves help decrease pressure inside the vessel. During normal operation, the pressurizer contains liquid and vapor reactor coolant in equilibrium. Depending on the level of liquid reactor coolant, the pressurizer will adjust by either spraying in more liquid reactor coolant or increasing the temperature via the electric heaters. Remember: The primary reactor coolant cycle needs to remain pressurized to prevent the reactor coolant from boiling. The pressurizer needs attention so the reactor does not fall into a meltdown.

Steam Generator

Figure 10: Once-Through Steam Generator

Steam generators house the primary interface between the primary reactor coolant and the secondary water loop. As other parts of the primary reactor coolant, the general shape is a cylindrical vessel with hemispherical ends. Inside the steam generator, the primary reactor coolant flows into tiny tubes. The secondary coolant then flows around the outside of the tubes and picks up the heat through heat conduction. The secondary coolant converts from liquid to steam and then flows out of the steam generator to the turbine system where electricity is generated. The remaining primary coolant gets pumped back into the reactor core after being heated to a desired temperature. Babcock & Wilcox designed a steam generator called a Once-Through Steam Generator as shown in figure 10. The primary reactor coolant flows in from the primary inlet into the large cavity in the center of the steam generator. The secondary coolant loop flows into small channels along the sides of the steam generator and turns into steam via superheating. The steam gets directed out through the feed water outlets into the turbine chamber. There are other designs of steam generators such as the combustion engineering steam generator and the Westinghouse designs. If you would like to look into more about the designs, check out: http://mitnse.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/pwr_plant_04.pdf There are excellent descriptions of each of the steam generator types that not mentioned.

Conclusion
Nuclear power has become the new kid on the energy street; in comparison to coal usage, anywhere from the early 1900s, the first commercial nuclear reactor came on line in the 1960s. Since the early reactor designs, nuclear reactor designs have become more complex to better harness the energy in the fission reaction. The PWR design uses pressurized light water to extract the heat energy of the fission reaction inside the reactor vessel to transfer the heat to a steam generator where steam produces and gets channeled through turbines that generate electricity.

Work Cited
Information sources: netfiles.uiuc.edu mitnse.files.wordpress.com

Graphics sources: Figure 1:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressurized_water_reactor Figure 2: http://www.mining-journal.com/supplements/mj-uranium-supplement-0411/on-a-fission-mission Figure 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10:

http://mitnse.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/pwr_plant_04.pdf Figure 7:

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mragheb/www/NPRE%20402%20ME%20405%20Nuclear%20Power%20Engine ering/Pressurized%20Water%20Reactors.pdf Figure 8:

http://www.cea.fr/var/cea/storage/static/gb/library/Clefs46/pagesg/clefs46_71.html