Feedwater recycling system in BWR type reactor

Purpose: To improve the reactor safety by preventing thermal stresses and cracks generated in structural materials due to the fluctuations in the temperature for high temperature water - low temperature water mixture near the feedwater nozzle. Method: Feedwater pipes are connected to a pressure vessel not directly but by way of a flow control valve. While the recycled water is circulated from an inlet nozzle to an outlet nozzle through a recycle pump, flow control valve and recycling pipeways, feedwater is fed from the feedwater pipes to the recycling pipeways by way of the flow control valve. More specifically, since the high temperature recycle water and the low temperature recycle water are mixed within the pipeways, the temperature fluctuations resulted from the temperature difference between the recycle water and the feedwater is reduced to prevent thermal fatigue and generation of cracks thereby securing the reactor safety. (Furukawa, Y.)