Small Modular Reactor Reactivity Disturbance Suppression Method Based on Core Coolant Flow Control

Abstract

Nuclear reactors may suffer from various disturbances during operation. These disturbances can cause core power deviates from the set parameters, and affect the power level of reactors. Due to the limited internal space of the reactor, the number of control rods is small. It is difficult to set up control rod groups dedicated to reactive compensation for modular reactor of medium or small size. Therefore, it is necessary to study a set of reactivity compensation measures that do not rely on control rods according to the actual needs of modular reactors to compensate for the power deviation caused by reactivity disturbances. A disturbance suppression method based on coolant flow control is proposed in the study. This method takes advantage of the Doppler effect of the coolant temperature, and changes the coolant flow rate to affect its temperature when reactive disturbances occur, thereby compensating for fluctuations of reactivity. Numerical experiments show that this method can effectively suppress the power deviation caused by reactive disturbances, and has engineering application value.