Feasibility of Heat Pipe Technology for Passive Heat Removal in Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Heat pipes are efficient and reliable heat transfer devices that have been widely used in space applications. Due to their passive operation, they are attractive and suitable devices for passive heat removal for future nuclear power plants. The use of heat pipes has been proposed in few small reactor designs for passive heat removal from the reactor core. Other potential applications of heat pipes include transferring excess heat from nuclear reactor’s containment building to the atmosphere by integrating low temperature heat pipes into the containment building, as well as passively cooling spent fuel bays. This paper reviews heat pipe technology and its applications for passive heat removal in nuclear power plants. Heat pipe components and the limiting factors that should be considered in a heat pipe design are discussed briefly and feasibility studies of using heat pipes for passive cooling of a spent fuel pool is discussed.