Heat Loss Analysis for a Re-Entrant SCWR Fuel-Channel Concept

Abstract

The operating temperatures and pressures of SuperCriticial Water-cooled Reactors (SCWRs) prevent the use of current CANDU fuel-channel designs and hence new concepts need to be developed. The Re-Entrant fuel-Channel (REC) is one such concept for a Pressure Tube (PT) type SCWR. In this design, the coolant flows from one end of the channel via a flow tube and then reverses its direction and flows through a pressure tube. The fuel bundles and insulator are located in the pressure tube. In this work, a heat loss analysis is conducted for the new REC concept using a uniform axial power profile along with a sensitivity analysis for the porosity of the insulator.