International collaboration in thermal-hydraulics and heat transfer for supercritical water-cooled reactors

The SCWR (Super-Critical Water-cooled Reactor)is a water cooled reactor concept that uses water pressurized above the thermodynamic critical pressure (i.e. 22.1 MPa) as reactor coolant. As most commonly envisioned, an SCWR would operate on a direct thermodynamic cycle as a boiling water reactor (BWR). And since it uses supercritical-pressure water, the coolant experiences no phase changes, which makes a once-through reactor as a pressurized water reactor (PWR). the Coordinated Research Project (CRP) has two main objectives: 1) to establish a base of accurate data for heat transfer, pressure drop, blowdown, natural circulation and stability for conditions relevant to supercritical fluids, and 2) to test methods of analysis for SCWR thermo-hydraulic behaviour, and identify code development needs. In order to meet these objectives a 10-task plan was adopted by the CRP participants