The orificing of once-through boilers for gas-cooled reactors

The boilers at Hinkley Point B, Hunterston B (which are built to a common design) and Hartlepool and Heysham (which are identical to each other although different from Hinkley B/Hunterston B) are discussed. Heysham II and Torness have boilers developed from the Hinkley B/Hunterston B design. The boiler design is explained and the problems encountered are presented. The study presented in this address highlights the potential sensitivity of the performance of once-through boilers to the following factors - the uniformity of the gas inlet temperature profile, the choice of the operating point on the boiler characteristic (preferably this should be where the performance of the unit is not too sensitive to the primary side temperature and flow distribution); this can be achieved by greater levels of orificing reducing the steady state gains, and the various plant operating states which introduce asymmetries into the boundary conditions for the boiler. A number of computer codes have been used to model boiler performance. Using these, a new design was proposed for boiler feed regulating orifices and these revised orifices were installed during outages on the two Heysham reactors in 1985. (U.K.)