Thermal Sizing of Printed Circuit Steam Generator for Integral Reactor

SMART aims at achieving enhanced safety and improved economics; the enhancement of safety and reliability is realized by incorporating inherent safety-improving features and reliable passive safety systems. The improvement in the economics is achieved through a system simplification, component modularization, reduction of construction time, and high plant availability. The standard design approval assures the safety of the SMART system. The capital cost of the major plant equipment has a significant effect on the overall economics of the nuclear plant. Minimizing the cost of manufacturing of the nuclear plant components is important to reduce the cost of the reactor. It is necessary to reduce the size of the steam generator in order to design a smaller reactor vessel, which is substantial for the overall construction cost, with the required thermal capacity preserved. The Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger is a type of compact heat exchangers that provides high power density along with a low pressure drop and reduced maintenance requirements. This paper describes the approach we used while determining the size of the Printed Circuit Steam Generator (PCSG) and resultant smaller reactor vessel. Thermal hydraulic and geometric parameters for the PCSG were studied. The results show that the overall volume of the steam generator can be significantly reduced. On the basis of this calculation, we can design a smaller reactor vessel with the PCSG