T. Takeda et M. Hishida, Study on the passive safe technology for the prevention of air ingress during the primary-pipe rupture accident of HTGR, NUCL ENG DE, 200(1-2), 2000, pp. 251-259
A primary-pipe rupture accident is one of the design-basis accidents of a h
igh-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). When the primary-pipe rupture ac
cident occurs, air is expected to enter the reactor core from the breach an
d oxidize in-core graphite structures. This study is to investigate the air
ingress phenomena and to develop the passive safe technology for the preve
ntion of air ingress and of graphite corrosion. This paper describes the me
thod for the prevention of air ingress into the reactor during the primary-
pipe rupture accident. It is found that a safe cooling rate of the reactor
core exists for the prevention of air ingress. The experimental results sho
w that the natural circulation flow of air during the accident can be contr
olled by the method of helium gas injection into the reactor pressure vesse
l. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.