Steam Generator of the International Reactor Innovative and Secure

TLDR

IRIS is a 335 MWe light‑water reactor under development by an international consortium as part of the US DOE NERI Program. This paper reports on the ongoing design of IRIS’s steam generators, a key element of the reactor’s long‑life core and enhanced safety strategy for Generation IV. IRIS’s integral reactor vessel houses all main coolant‑system components—including the core, pumps, steam generators, and pressurizer—within a single vessel. The integral design eliminates large coolant‑loop piping, thereby removing the risk of large loss‑of‑coolant accidents and the need for separate component pressure vessels and supports.

Abstract

IRIS (International Reactor Innovative and Secure) is a light water cooled, 335 MWe power reactor which is being designed by an international consortium as part of the US DOE NERI Program. IRIS features an integral reactor vessel that contains all the main reactor coolant system components including the reactor core, the coolant pumps, the steam generators and the pressurizer. This integral design approach eliminates the large coolant loop piping, and thus eliminates large loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) as well as the individual component pressure vessels and supports. In addition, IRIS is being designed with a long-life core and enhanced safety to address the requirements defined by the US DOE for Generation IV reactors. The design of the steam generators, which are internally contained within the reactor vessel, is a major design effort in the development of the integral IRIS concept. The ongoing design activity about the steam generator is the subject of this paper.