ASTRID SFR PROTOTYPE STEAM GENERATOR DESIGN EVOLUTION RELATED TO SAFETY AND COST ISSUES

Antony Woaye Hune (1) , Alain Gerber (1) , Jean-Philippe Pirus (1) , Laurent Soucille (1) , François Beauchamp (2) , Gilles Rodriguez (3)

1 AREVA NP - Centre Technique (FRANCE)
2 CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives
3 DER - Département Etude des Réacteurs

One option of the ASTRID prototype power conversion systems (PCS) is the steam cycle based on the Rankine cycle, which has been implemented in the past in France in the Phénix and Superphénix Sodium Fast Reactors, and is also being implemented in other SFRs in construction in the world (Russia, India, China). This paper is placed in the context of the Rankine cycle ameliorations and in particular on the Steam Generator (SG), developed by AREVA, from the safety point of view without significant penalty on cost. Therefore significant progresses are awaited to reduce sodium/water reaction accident scenario impact as much by prevention as by mitigation. Following the ICAPP 2010 paper (1), ASTRID project performed a thorough comparison of SG designs with regard to these safety requirements but also including increased sodium/water segregation (inlet and outlet of sodium implemented at the bottom of the SG), material issues and cost considerations. The design is based today on a monolithic SG with alloy 800 helical tubes but equipped with geometric specificities necessary for allowing the use of a single component per secondary loop.

Domains: Chemical engineering

Antony Woaye Hune, Alain Gerber, Jean-Philippe Pirus, Laurent Soucille, François Beauchamp, et al.. ASTRID SFR PROTOTYPE STEAM GENERATOR DESIGN EVOLUTION RELATED TO SAFETY AND COST ISSUES. ICAPP, May 2015, Nice, France. ⟨cea-01852380⟩