High temperature engineering research facilities and experiments in China

June 14, 1995, the construction of a pebble bed type high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) started in China. It is a test reactor with 10 MW thermal power output (termed HTR- 10). The test reactor is located on the site of Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University in the northwest suburb of Beijing, about 40 km away from the city. Design of the HTR-10 test reactor represents the features of HTR-Modular design: 'side-by-side' arrangement, spherical fuel elements with 'multi-pass' loading scheme, completely passive decay heat removal, reactor shutdown systems in the side reflector, etc. However, in the HTR-10 design some modifications from the HTR-Module were made to satisfy Chinese conditions. For example, the steam generator is composed of a number of modular helical tubes with small diameter, pulse pneumatic discharging apparatus are used in the fuel handling system and step motor driving control rods are designed. These modifications would cause some uncertainty in our design. It is necessary to do engineering experiments to prove these new or modified ideas. Therefore, a program of engineering experiments for HTR-10 key technologies is being conducted at INET. The main aims of these engineering experiments are to verify the designed characteristics and performance of the components and systems, to feedback on design and to obtain operational experiences. Those engineering experiments are depressurization test of the hot gas duct at room temperature and operating pressure, performance test of the hot gas duct at operating helium temperature and pressure, performance test of the pulse pneumatic fuel handling system, test of the control rods driving apparatus, two phase flow stability test for the once through steam generator and cross mixture test at the bottom of the reactor core