Introduction to Power Reactor

Types
22.312 Lecture 1
Prof. Jacopo Buongiorno

1
Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR)

Public domain image, from U.S. NRC.

2
 PWR

Primary system for a Westinghouse 4-loop PWR.

Source: Nero, A.V. A Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors, 1979. © University of California
Press. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our Creative Commons license.
For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/.
3
 PWR Vessel,
Internals, & Core

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

Public domain image, from U.S. NRC. 4

 PWR Assembly and Fuel Pin

Source: Nero, A.V. A Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors, 1979.

© University of California Press. All rights reserved. This © source unknown. All rights reserved. This content is
content is excluded from our Creative Commons license. excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more
5
For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/. information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/.
Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)

Public domain image, from U.S. NRC.

6
 BWR Recirculation System
ESBWR
BWR/6 ABWR

External recirculation Ten internal Relies on natural

pumps + jet pumps recirculation pumps circulation 7

Courtesy of GE Hitachi Nuclear Systems. Used with permission.

 BWR Rx
Vessel,
Internals,
and Core

© Elsevier. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our Creative
Commons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse.
Source: Shah, V. N. and P. E. MacDonald. Aging and Life Extension of
Major Light Water Reactor Components. Elsevier Science, 1993. 8
BWR Fuel and Control Assemblies

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

9
CROSS SECTION OF BWR FUEL ASSEMBLIES
WITH CRUCIFORM CONTROL ROD

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

10
 CANDU

© Dr. Jeremy Whitlock, Canadian Nuclear FAQ. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from
our Creative Commons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/help/faq-fair-use/.

11
CANDU Calandria
Tank

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12
 CANDU Fuel Bundle

Courtesy of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. License CC BY.

Calandria Tube

Fuel

Pressure Tube

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 LMFBR

Courtesy of Idaho National Laboratory. Used with permission.

14
 LMFBR Core

Public domain image, from U.S. DOE. 15

 LMFBR
Assembly

Public domain image, from U.S. DOE.

16
LMFBR Pin

Public domain image, from U.S. DOE. 17

 Fuel for Block Core HTGR
TRISO fuel particle

Pyrolytic Carbon
Silicon Carbide
Porous Carbon Buffer
UO2 (or UCO) Kernel

TRISO Coated fuel particles (left) are formed into

cylindrical fuel compacts (center) and inserted into
hexagonal graphite fuel elements (right).

TRISO PARTICLES CYLINDRICAL HEXAGONAL

COMPACTS FUEL ELEMENTS
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4-14-94
 HTGR

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Fuel for Pebble Bed HTGR
Fuel Element Design for PBMR

5mm Graphite Layer

Coated Particles Imbedded in

Graphite Matrix
Diameter 60 mm
Pyrolytic Carbon
Fuel Sphere
Silicon Carbite Barrier Coating

Inner Pyrolytic Carbon

Half Section
Porous Carbon Buffer

Diameter 0,92mm
Coated Particle
Diameter 0,5mm
Uranium Dioxide
Fuel

Image by MIT OpenCourseWare.

20
 Pebble Bed HTGR

Thermal Power 250 MW

Core Height 10.0 m
Core Diameter 3.5 m
Fuel UO2
Number of Fuel Pebbles 360,000
Microspheres/Fuel Pebble 11,000
Fuel Pebble Diameter 60 mm
Microsphere Diameter ~ 1mm
Coolant Helium

Pebble bed

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MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu

22.312 Engineering of Nuclear Reactors

Fall 2015

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