Inherently safe and accident tolerant light water reactor

• Grant number: 13/06656-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: July 20, 2013
• End date: May 19, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Nuclear Engineering - Reactor Technologies
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Teixeira e Silva
• Grantee: Thiago Garcia João
• Supervisor: Arthur E. Ruggles
• Host Institution: Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN). Secretaria de Desenvolvimento Econômico (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Tennessee (UT), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/17090-7 - Proposal of new core configurations for the IPEN/CNEN-SP IEA-R1 research reactor with high density uranium fuels, BP.DD

Abstract

The primary objective of this work is to design a transformational 1000 MWe light water reactor (LWR) that integrates an innovative and significantly more robust fuel with a highly thermally conductive core configuration to ensure cooling even under severe accident scenarios that may result in some degree of core uncovery. Core design parameters will be determined with regard to size, power and power density so that, in the absence of coolant, fuel failure and radioactive material release from the fuel is precluded by conductive, passive convective and radiant heat transfer alone. (AU)