Experimental Investigation of Natural Circulation in Regional Energy Reactor-10MWth

A small- and medium-sized nuclear reactor (SMR) has drawn attention because it is used for multi-purpose applications of desaltination, district heating, ship propulsion and small-scale power generation. The SMR has the virtue of providing for the safety more than a large-sized nuclear reactor. It can be avoidable the occurrence of a large break LOCA because the primary pipes are eliminated. And as the SMR is designed to simplify the geometries and safety systems, uncertainties about the reactor operations are reduced and its safety improves. RERI (Regional Energy Research Institute for Next Generation) is designing REX-10 (Regional Energy Reactor 10 MWth) based on SMART-P. This reactor must improve the enhanced safety because the main purposes of it are small-scale power generation and district heating. From this reason, REX-10 adopts the way to remove heat by natural circulation. And to investigate the natural circulation characteristics of REX-10, we constructed RTF (REX- 10 Test Facility) in RERI. The main aim of this article is to evaluate the natural circulation behavior under various experimental conditions