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Examining the Inherent Safety of Prism, Safr, and the Mhtgr
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1990
Year
EngineeringLiquid Metal CoolingReactor DesignSafety ScienceInherent Reactivity FeedbackEducationSafety PolicyInherent SafetyProcess SafetyCurie Point MagnetsPassive SafetySafety CriterionElectrical EngineeringThermal ProtectionDesignHeat TransferSafety EngineeringAdvanced Nuclear ReactorsHeat ExchangerNuclear SafetyThermal ManagementReactor SafetySafety AnalysisTechnologyThermal Engineering
Three advanced design concepts, including two liquid-metal-cooled reactors (LMRs), the Power Reactor Inherently Safe Module (PRISM) and the Sodium Advanced Fast Reactor (SAFR), and a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) are discussed and compared. Each provides inherent or passive safety to improve system safety. The focus is on two primary objectives: reactor shutdown and shutdown heat removal. The LMR and HTGR concepts rely on inherent reactivity feedback to provide an inherent reactor response under a failure-to-scram condition; SAFR also provides a passive shutdown system using Curie point magnets (the self-actuated scram system). For shutdown heat removal, the LMR and HTGR designs rely on passive air cooling of the reactor vessel as the ultimate safety-grade system.