GLAMOUR. A glass model of a pressurized water reactor

GLAMOUR is the name of an experimental loop, capable of simulating the thermohydraulic behaviour of a primary loop of a pressurized water reactor under accident conditions. The primary loop of the model plant is constructed entirely of glass. It consists of these components: a reactor, a steam generator, a coo-lant pump and a pressurizer, connected by glass piping of 70 mm dia-meter. The reactor contains 37 electrically heated rods and the reactor power is adjustable between 0 and 30 kW. In the hot leg there is a connection for the pressurizer. The pressurizer is equipped with a heater and a spray system to regulate the pressure in the primary loop. Due to the glass construction the maximum primary pressure is limited to 1.5 bar. The steam generator contains 12 U-tubes, each 1 m long and 20 mm inner diameter. The coolant pump in the cold leg circulates the coolant water with insignificant pressure increase. The secondary system components are built of steel, and are located away from the primary loop so that an unobstructed view is possible from all sides. The secondary side of the steam generator is controlled by a level and pressure regulating system. The produced steam is vented to a condenser through a pressure regulating valve, and a feed pump returns the condensate to the steam generator. In this report all components of the loop are described in detail and their geometrical dimensions are compared with the dimensions of a 1000 MW nuclear plant. Several operating and simulated acci-dent conditions of the model are presented and discussed. (author)