微型核反应堆技术发展趋势研究

微型核反应堆采用四代非轻水堆、热管堆以及三代轻水堆等固有安全性高的堆型,可以为偏远海岛和矿区、边防哨所和基地、应急救灾、太空和深海探索等创新场景提供长续航高可靠能源,具有广阔的应用前景,是实现国家战略的重要技术支撑之一。本研究总结了微型核反应堆的定义和主要研发堆型,描述了微型核反应堆固有安全性高、易于模块化和扩展、可运输性、便于部署、自主运行等创新技术特征,分析了微型核反应堆新型燃料、主回路一体化、新型热电转换装置、非能动安全系统、智能运维以及核能与其他能源耦合等关键技术的发展趋势,可为制定适用于我国的微型核反应堆发展技术路线提供支撑。      

Safe operation and life extension of RBMK plants

The article presents an overview of the issues for ensuring safe operation of the Russian nuclear power plants with RBMK-1000 reactors.The operating data for such NPPs are included, the upgrading activities are described. The examples of the major implemented activities and their contribution to safety enhancement are given.The activities aimed at the justification of safe operation of NPP with RMBK-1000 reactors are described and some results are provided.The basic conclusion is that today it can be claimed with good reason that operation of the nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors is as safe as operation of NPP with domestic and foreign reactors of other types.     

Innovative nuclear technology based on modular multi-purpose lead–bismuth cooled fast reactors

Today's nuclear power is in the state of an intrinsic conflict between economic and safety requirements. This fact makes difficult its sustainable development.

One of the ways of finding the solution to the problem can be the use of modular fast reactors SVBR-75/100 cooled by lead–bismuth coolant that has been mastered in conditions of operating reactors of Russian nuclear submarines.

The inherent self-protection and passive safety properties are peculiar to that reactor due to physical features of small power fast reactors (100 MWe), chemical inertness and high boiling point of lead–bismuth coolant, integral design of the pool type primary circuit equipment.

Due to small power of the reactor, it is possible to fabricate the whole reactor at the factory and to deliver it to the NPP site in practical readiness by using any kind of transport including the railway.

Substantiation of the high level of reactor safety, adaptability of the SVBR-75/100 reactor relative to the fuel type and fuel cycle, issues of non-proliferation of nuclear fissile materials, opportunities of multi-purpose usage of the standard SVBR-75/100 reactors have been viewed in the paper.     

Nuclear power technologies at the stage of sustainable nuclear power development

It is not simple to solve the problem of competitiveness of nuclear power technologies in evolutionary upgrading the conventional nuclear power plants (NPP) such as light water reactors (LWR), which requires high expenditure for safety. Moreover, the existing LWRs cannot provide nuclear power (NP) for a long time (hundreds of years) because the efficiency of use of natural uranium is low and closing the nuclear fuel cycle (NFC) for those reactors is not expedient.The highlighted problem can be solved in the way of use of innovative nuclear power technology in which natural uranium power potential is used effectively and the intrinsic conflict between economic and safety requirements has been essentially mitigated.The technology that is most available and practically demonstrated is the use of reactors SVBR-100 — small power multi-purpose modular fast reactors (100 MWe) cooled by lead-bismuth coolant (LBC). This technology has been mastered for nuclear submarines’ reactors in Russia.High technical and economical parameters of the NPP based on RF SVBR-100 are determined from the fact that the potential energy stored in LBC per a volume unit is the lowest.The compactness of the reactor facility SVBR-100 that results from integral arrangement of the primary circuit equipment allows realizing renovation of power-units LWRs, the vessels’ lifetime of which has been expired. So due to this fact, high economical efficiency can be obtained.The paper also validates the economical advantage of launching the uranium-fueled fast reactors with further changeover to the closed NFC with use of plutonium extracted from the own spent nuclear fuel in comparison with launching fast reactors directly with on uranium-plutonium fuel on the basis of plutonium extraction from spent nuclear fuel of LWRs.     

研究堆运行许可证有效期延续申请审查策略

生态环境部第8号令《核动力厂、研究堆和核燃料循环设施安全许可程序规定》对核动力厂、研究堆和核燃料循环设施运行许可证件延续事项作出了新的规定。为推动我国研究堆老化管理标准体系建立,分析了我国研究堆延寿审查策略发展历程,结合高通量工程试验堆等研究堆运行许可证有效期延续申请审查工作中的几个关键问题,提出了以定期安全审查为主、重点依据老化管理并兼顾技术规格书审查及差异性审查的审查策略,研究成果为我国研究堆老化管理法规标准的建立提供了实践经验及理论指导依据。      

Nuclear power development in market conditions with use of multi-purpose modular fast reactors SVBR-75/100

This article presents an innovative nuclear power technology, based on the use of modular type fast-neutron reactors SVBR-75/100 having heavy liquid-metal coolant, i.e. eutectic lead–bismuth alloy, which was mastered in Russia for the nuclear submarines’ reactors. Reactor SVBR-75/100 possesses inherent self-protection and passive safety properties that allow excluding of many safety systems necessary for traditional type reactors. Use of this nuclear power technology makes it possible to eliminate conflicting requirements among safety needs and economic factors, which is particularly found in traditional reactors, to increase considerably the investment attractiveness of nuclear power based on the use of fast-neutron reactors for the near future, when the cost of natural uranium is low and to assure development of nuclear power in market conditions. On the basis of the factory-fabricated “standard” reactor modules, it is possible to construct the nuclear power plants with different power and purposes. Without changing the design, it is possible for reactor SVBR-75/100 to use different kinds of fuel and operate in different fuel cycles with meeting the safety requirements.     

Output-feedback load-following control of nuclear reactors based on a dissipative high gain filter

Due to the existing serious climate and environment problems caused by burning fossil fuels, nuclear energy is now under rapid development. It is clear that power-level control technique for nuclear reactors is significant for not only regular operation but also vital safety issues. Nowadays, most of the existing nuclear power plants are regulated by the conventional control system. However, the development in computer technology, information processing, and control theory in the past decades allow the applications of advanced controllers with higher performance. In this paper, the separation principle for the recently established dissipative high gain filter (DHGF) is presented, which guarantees the closed-loop stability of the system interconnected with a state-feedback controller and the DHGF. Moreover, the feasibility of applying the DHGF to the load-following control of nuclear reactors is verified. Finally, the DHGF with a well designed state-feedback power-level controller has been successfully applied to realize the load-following control for a nuclear heating reactor (NHR). Numerical simulation results show the high performance of the DHGF and the feasibility of the DHGF-based dynamic output feedback controller, and influence of the observer gain to the control and observation performance is also analyzed.     

热管冷却反应堆的兴起和发展

热管冷却反应堆采用固态反应堆设计理念,通过热管非能动方式导出堆芯热量。本文总结了热管冷却反应堆的概念初创、积极探索、重大突破的发展历程;分析了热管冷却反应堆的技术特点,包括固态属性、固有安全性高、运行特性简单、易于模块化与易扩展和运输特性良好等核心优势;归纳了热管冷却反应堆中热管性能、材料工艺、能量转换等技术现状,并提出热管冷却反应堆进一步发展将面临的材料、制造工艺、运行可维护性等挑战,从而明确了热管冷却反应堆未来的发展趋势,为革新型热管冷却反应堆技术的发展与应用提供良好的方向指引。总体而言,热管冷却反应堆在深空探测与推进、陆基核电源、深海潜航探索等场景中具有广阔的应用前景,有可能成为改变未来核动力格局的颠覆性技术之一。      

论解决核电安全问题的途径

从现有水冷反应堆核电厂存在堆芯熔化危险这一安全问题的焦点出发,分析了改进型反应堆AP-600、SIR、非能动安全反应堆PIUS和具有固有安全的模块高温气冷堆MHTGR等的安全特性.按照下一代水冷反应堆的设计要求和用户要求,提出了解决水堆核电厂安全问题的新概念——自安全铀氢锆反应堆,该堆型可能成为世界水堆核电发展的一个方问。中国核动力研究设计院正在探讨这种堆型。     

Radiation Characteristics of Fuel and Wastes in the Uranium–Plutonium and Thorium–Uranium Fuel Cycle

The radiation characteristics of fuel cycles of various reactors – replacement candidates in the future nuclear power – are compared. Proceeding from the basic requirements (safety, fuel supply, and nonproliferation of fissioning materials), inherently safe fast reactors of the BREST type can be used as the basis for large-scale nuclear power. Thermal reactors, which can burn enriched uranium, thorium–uranium fuel, or mixed uranium–plutonium fuel with makeup with fissioning materials from fast reactors, will operate for a long time simultaneously with fast reactors in the future nuclear power. VVÉR-1000 and CANDU reactors are examined as representatives of thermal reactors; for each of these reactors the operation in various variants of the fuel cycle is simulated. It is shown that with respect to radiation characteristics of the fuel and wastes the thorium–uranium fuel cycle has no great advantages over the uranium–plutonium cycle.     

Georgia Tech Studies of Sub-Critical Advanced Burner Reactors with a D-T Fusion Tokamak Neutron Source for the Transmutation of Spent Nuclear Fuel

The possibility that a tokamak D-T fusion neutron source, based on ITER physics and technology, could be used to drive sub-critical, fast-spectrum nuclear reactors fueled with the transuranics (TRU) in spent nuclear fuel discharged from conventional nuclear reactors has been investigated at Georgia Tech in a series of studies which are summarized in this paper. It is found that sub-critical operation of such fast transmutation reactors is advantageous in allowing longer fuel residence time, hence greater TRU burnup between fuel reprocessing stages, and in allowing higher TRU loading without compromising safety, relative to what could be achieved in a similar critical transmutation reactor. The required plasma and fusion technology operating parameter range of the fusion neutron source is generally within the anticipated operational range of ITER. The implications of these results for fusion development policy, if they hold up under more extensive and detailed analysis, is that a D-T fusion tokamak neutron source for a sub-critical transmutation reactor, built on the basis of the ITER operating experience, could possibly be a logical next step after ITER on the path to fusion electrical power reactors. At the same time, such an application would allow fusion to contribute to meeting the nation’s energy needs at an earlier stage by helping to close the fission reactor nuclear fuel cycle.     

MCU-PTR program for high-precision calculations of pool and tank type research reactors

The MCU-PTR program with a MDBPTR50 database has been developed. The purpose of this program is to perform high-precision mathematical modeling of nuclear reactors and to calculate their neutron-physical characteristics. The program uses the Monte-Carlo method to solve the equations governing n, γ radiation transfer and uses evaluated data describing the interaction of neutrons and photons with matter. The change of the isotopic composition of the reactor materials during the operation of the reactor is taken into account. The organization of the program makes it possible to organize parallel computation and perform the calculations on super and personal computers with multinuclear processes. The dynamical distribution of the memory removes the restrictions on the mathematic models of the reactor. The program is intended for computational tracking of the operation of research reactors, validating upgraded designs of reactors, planning, and optimizing experimental conditions with respect to nuclear physics, radiation materials science, creating optimal conditions for producing radionuclides, and solving nuclear and radiological safety questions for operating and shutting down reactors.     

秦山三期CANDU-6核电机组技术规格书的修改

描述了制定秦山三期CANDU 6核电机组技术规格书 (TS)的核安全法规依据 ,简要介绍了按照中国核安全法规的要求、参照美国NRC制定的压水堆核电站成熟的标准技术规格书的格式和应用加拿大CANDU机组采用的运行方针和政策所积累的成熟的运行经验 ,对AECL提交的TS进行修改的情况以及对TS中一些重要技术问题的修改内容 ,说明了修改后的TS基本满足了中国核安全法规的要求 ,可以在核电站的运行中使用     

Regulatory aspects of fusion power-lessons from fission plants

Experience from fission reactors has shown the regulatory process for licensing a nuclear facility to be legalistic, lengthy, unpredictable, and costly. This experience also indicates that much of the regulatory debate is focused on safety margins, that is, the smaller the safety margins the bigger the regulatory debate and the greater the amount of proof required to satisfy the regulator. Such experience suggests that caution and prudence guide the development of a regulatory regime for fusion reactors. Fusion has intrinsic safety and environmental advantages over fission, which should alleviate significantly, or even eliminate, the regulatory problems associated with fission. The absence of a criticality concern and the absence of fission products preclude a Chernobyl type accident from occurring in a fusion reactor. Although in a fusion reactor there are large inventories of radioactive products that can be mobilized, the total quantity is orders of magnitude smaller than in fission power reactors. The bulk of the radioactivity in a fusion reactor is either activation products in steel structures, or tritium fuel supplies safely stored in the form of a metal tritide in storage beds. The quantity of tritium that can be mobilized under accident conditions is much less than ten million curies. This compares very favorably with a fission product inventory greater than ten billion curies in a fission power reactor. Furthermore, in a fission reactor, all of the reactivity is contained in a steel vessel that is pressurized to about 150 atmospheres, whereas in a fusion reactor, the inventory of radioactive material is dispersed in different areas of the plant, such that it is improbable that a single event could give rise to the release of the entire inventory to the environment. These intrinsic features give fusion a significant safety and environmental advantage over fission. With such significant intrinsic safety advantages there is noa priori need to make fusion requirements/regulations more demanding and more stringent than fission. To do so could have the effect of making the licensing process more difficult, more costly, and less certain. The result could be a delay in the advent of a safer and more environmentally benign energy system.     

Application of gas-cooled Accelerator Driven System (ADS) transmutation devices to sustainable nuclear energy development

The conceptual design of a pebble bed gas-cooled transmutation device is shown with the aim to evaluate its potential for its deployment in the context of the sustainable nuclear energy development, which considers high temperature reactors for their operation in cogeneration mode, producing electricity, heat and Hydrogen. As differential characteristics our device operates in subcritical mode, driven by a neutron source activated by an accelerator that adds clear safety advantages and fuel flexibility opening the possibility to reduce the nuclear stockpile producing energy from actual LWR irradiated fuel with an efficiency of 45-46%, either in the form of Hydrogen, electricity, or both.     

Channel reactors as an integral part of nuclear power in Russia

The place and role of channel reactors in nuclear power in our country and the main measures for upgrading and improving the power generating units of nuclear power plants with RBMK reactors are described. It is shown that the risk indicators for serious damage to the core of power generating units with RBMK reactors are lower after upgrading and the corresponding IAEA criterion established for operating nuclear power plants. Upgrading and implementation of a service life extension program has made it possible to obtain licenses for continuing operation of power generating units with first-generation RBMK reactors and predicting a service life increase to 45 years. The characteristics of nuclear power plants with channel reactors with more highly developed internal and natural safety properties are shown in evolutionary designs of the power generating units MKéR-860,-1000, and-1500, which have protective shells and which meet all requirements for power generating units built today. It is shown that innovative solutions for the channel reactor concept can be implemented on the basis of the designs of power generating units with nuclear superheating of steam or on the basis of designs for developing reactors with supercritical parameters. __________ Translated from Atomnaya énergiya,Vol. 103, No. 1, pp. 29–36, July, 2007.     

Japanese regulatory practices on licensing, inspection, operational supervision and related standards

Japanese view on the safety of nuclear power plants is based on the concept that the primary responsibility for securing safety lies on electric power companies, installers of reactors.Under this concept, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), in the course of designing and construction, has been performed an examination of the basic design and the detailed design of nuclear power plants, and in each stage of construction, a pre-operational inspection process. In addition, MITI, in operating stage, has been made throughgoing investigations on the causes of troubles and incidents as well as accidents that may affect operation, forcing utilities to take measures to prevent recurrence, and implementing safety regulation based on the “preventive maintenance” including elaborate checkings and overhaulings at the periodical inspections conducted for a period of three to four months after every 12-month operation cycle under the laws and regulations.This paper discusses the current status of nuclear power development in Japan, safety regulatory systems, views on safety and future prospects of securing safety.     

空间核反应堆电源用核燃料研制进展

核燃料是空间核反应堆电源的主要材料之一,由于空间核反应堆电源的运行条件明显有别于地面反应堆,空间核反应堆电源用核燃料的类型和技术要求也明显不同于地面反应堆。国际上空间核反应堆电源用核燃料研制取得了长足的进展,多种核燃料材料在工程应用中得到了检验,并在持续开发新型核燃料。我国在亚化学计量二氧化铀芯块、铀钼合金、铀氢锆合金、碳化铀芯块、氮化铀芯块等多种具备在空间堆中应用的燃料材料上开展了一定的研究,并掌握了部分材料性能数据。本文就上述内容展开论述,同时针对与国际相应领域明显落后的实际情况,提出了我国后续核燃料研究的初步设想。     

Reactors for low-temperature nuclear heat supply

Nuclear sources are not only covering more than 16% of today's electricity production but can also supply heat for district heating and industrial needs. Thus the nuclear generated heat substitutes for fossil fuels with good efficiency and economy and with much higher environmental cleanliness. Low-temperature nuclear heat is gained in several countries from the reactors of nuclear power plants by co-generation of heat and electricity which is already a proven technology. Specialized nuclear heating plants are in an early stage of development. The paper gives an overview of the situation worldwide and shows also specific common safety characteristics of these reactors.     

Analysis of loss of coolant accident in MTR pool type research reactor

In MTR research reactors, heat removal is, safely performed by forced convection during normal operation and by natural convection after reactor shutdown for residual decay heat removal. However, according to the duration time of operation at full power, it may be required to maintain the forced convection, for a certain period of time after the reactor shutdown. This is among the general requirements for the overall safety engineering features of MTR research reactors to ensure a safe residual heat removal. For instance, in safety analysis of research reactors, initiating events that may challenge the safe removal of residual heat must be identified and analyzed.In the present work, it was assumed a total loss of coolant accident in a typical MTR nuclear research reactor with the objective of examining the core behavior and the occurrence of any fuel damage.For this purpose, the IAEA 10 MW benchmark core, which is a representative of medium power pool type MTR research reactors, was chosen herein in order to investigate the evolution of cladding temperature through the use of a best estimate thermalhydraulic system code RELAP5/mod3.2.