Heat Pipes in nuclear reactors

bksree

Are there any reactors which employ heat pipes for heat removal ? If so can you send me links / details of published lit.

TIA

NUCENG

Not sure what you mean by "heat pipes." During operation plants can usually be lumped into two major categories: Once thru cooling and those with cooling towers. Plants near the sea or large lakes or rivers may use once thru cooling takind water from the water source running it once through the condenser to remove heat from exhaust steam and then back to the water source. A plant with cooling towers takes water from the source and runs it through the condenser then out to a cooling tower where it is sprayed over a structure allowing the heat to be released as steam vapor to the air. More water is taken from the water source and mixed with the water that didn't vaporize. This is then pumped back to the condenser. Cooling towers or cooling ponds reduce the heat added to smaller bodies of water which can be significant in a once thru design.

This circulating water is pumped to and from the condenser in pipes or large concrete channels. Is that what you are looking for?

Dmytry

'Passive cooling' features in modern BWR designs work by same principle as heat pipe. Water boils off in core, goes into huge condenser (air cooled for example), condenses here, and flows back into core by gravity.

Hologram0110

I'm also not sure what the op is talking about.

The only time I've encountered a "heat-pipe" is when looking at CPU cooling units for my computer. That is what they call the thick copper on the heat sink used to transport heat by conduction to the cooling fins.

I've never heard of any such design for a nuclear reactor. Most metals would melt at too low of a temperature and/or capture too many neutrons.

Astronuc

Try this list - http://isnps.unm.edu/resources/heatpipe.html

An example from the SP-100 reactor.

Heat pipes would generally not be used in the core, but interface with the primary via a heat exhanger.

http://www.lanl.gov/THROHPUT/2003_02_05/node2.html

One can search on 'SP-100 heat pipe' or '-- pipes'

NUCENG

Neat! Better pull my thermodynamics textbooks out of the closet! Thanks Astronuc.

Dmytry

the thick copper tube has a liquid and its vapour inside, so that the liquid would boil on the hot side, and condense on the cold side, and flow back to the hot side (by gravity or capillary action). If I ever build me a water cooled PC, that's how it'd work. I'd use condenser from old fridge.