Turbocirculator for High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors
The present design study was part of a program undertaken for the purpose of determining the feasibility, establishing the development requirements, and estimating the cost of a turbocirculator to provide the pumping power for a 1000-MWe High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR). Methods were developed for the optimization of the thermodynamic cycle and the design point of the turbocirculator components. A comparison of a turbocirculator to other ways of pumping helium in a HTGR is also shown in this paper. A design of the machine with its associated bearing and seal system and gas conduits was carried out. An important feature of this design is incorporation with the other components of the nuclear steam supply system within the prestressed concrete reactor pressure vessel.