Authors & Affiliations
Alekseev V.V., Sorokin A.P., Kuzina Yu.A.
A.I. Leypunsky Institute for Physics and Power Engineering, Obninsk, Russia
Alekseev V.V. – Chief Researcher, Dr. Sci. (Tech.). Contacts: 1, Bondarenko sq., Obninsk, Kaluga region, 249033. Tel.: +7 (484) 399-42-34; e-mail:
Sorokin A.P. –Chief Researcher, Dr. Sci. (Tech.).
Kuzina Yu.A. – Head of the Nuclear Power Department, Cand. Sci. (Tech.).
Abstract
In view of the environmental hazard of tritium, it is important to have estimates of its distribution in the reactor circuits and its release through the walls of the circuits into the air, gas, and water circuits. The presence of gas in the secondary circuit complicates the assessment of the mass transfer of tritium in the circuits of a nuclear power plant with a carnotized gas turbine compared to the traditional three-loop scheme. In a nuclear power plant, the tritium formed in the reactor in its bulk enters the sodium of the primary circuit. Its content in sodium can be estimated from the balance of tritium source and sinks in the coolant. Through the walls of the intermediate heat exchanger, tritium enters the gas circuit, from where, through the walls of the gas-water heat exchangers it enters the steam-water and water circuits. The methodology for estimating the transport and distribution of tritium in fast reactor circuits was proposed for a three-circuit nuclear power plant with sodium and was revised by the authors for installations containing gascoolant in the second circuit and sodium coolant in the primary circuit. The tritium mass transfer model is based on the balance of hydrogen and tritium in the primary and secondary circuits of the facility. Calculations have shown that cold traps in the primary circuit of the NPP BN GT-300/130 with a capacity of 300 MW (el) ensure the concentration of tritium in the water of the third circuit, which meets the radiation safety standards (NRB-99/2009), if the productivity of the hydrogen source in the primary circuit not less than 1.5·10–8 kg/s. Estimates of tritium flows through the walls of the circuits into air (~7·10–15 kg/s) and water coolant (~2.5·10–19 kg/s) are obtained.
Keywords
sodium coolant, tritium, hydrogen, carnotized closed gas turbine plant, reactor, mass transfer, cold trap, balance equations, concentration, permeability
Article Text (PDF, in Russian)
UDC 621.039.534
Problems of Atomic Science and Technology. Series: Nuclear and Reactor Constants, 2022, no. 3, 3:15