Recent Research at KAERI for a Supercritical CO2 Brayton ECS for a Gen-IV SFR

KAERI has conducted a systematic study for a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle energy conversion system coupled to the Gen-IV Sodium cooled Fast Reactor. A new configuration of a PCHE heat exchanger was developed by using a flow analysis, which shows a very small pressure loss compared with a previous PCHE while maintaining its heat transfer rate. A test apparatus was also installed to investigate a new PCHE performance. The MMS-LMR code was developed to analyze a system transient and control logic. On the basis of the code, the system behavior was analyzed when a turbine load was changed. Transient characteristics for the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle coupled with KALIMER-600 were also analyzed by using the developed computer codes. A Na-CO2 chemical reaction test has also been conducting to investigate the fundamental reaction mechanism. This paper contains the current research overview of the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle ECS at KAERI