System level thermal-hydraulic assessment of a natural circulating LFR

Abstract

Light Water Reactor Small Modular Reactors (LWR SMRs) have struggled to penetrate the US and international electricity markets while solar and wind energy have experienced tremendous success. Lead Fast Reactor (LFR) technology has great potential as an alternative to LWR SMRs to be able to complement solar and wind energy to produce baseload carbon free electricity. The inherent properties of lead coolant results in high degree of safety, plant simplification and design compactness. This study focuses on thermal-hydraulic performance of a natural circulating Lead-Bismuth Eutectic (LBE) cooled reactor with passive air cooling safety system. Specifically, the LFR design's response during steady state and ultimate loss of heat sink accident to thermal hydraulic model perturbations is shown to be insensitive.