The objective of this paper is to calculate heat losses from a CANDU-6 fuel-channel while modifying it according to the specified operating pressure and temperature conditions of SuperCritical Water-cooled Reactors (SCWRs). Heat losses from the coolant to the moderator are significant in a SCWR because of high operating temperatures (i.e., 350–625°C). This has adverse effects on the overall thermal efficiency of the Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), so it is necessary to determine the amount of heat losses from fuel-channels proposed for SCWRs. Inconel-718 was chosen as a pressure tube (PT) material and PT minimum required thickness was calculated in accordance with the coolant’s maximum operating pressure and temperature. The heat losses from the fuel-channel were calculated along the heated length of the fuel-channel. Steady-state one-dimensional heat-transfer analysis was conducted, and programming in MATLAB was performed. The fuel-channel was divided into small segments and for each segment thermal resistances of the fuel-channel components were analyzed. Further, the thermophysical properties of the coolant, annulus gas, and moderator were retrieved from the NIST REFPROP software. The analysis outcome resulted in a total heat loss of 29.3 kW per fuel-channel when the pressure of the annulus gas was 0.3 MPa.

Volume Subject Area:
Student Paper Competition
Topics:
Fuels, Heat losses, Supercritical water reactors, Pressure, Annulus, Coolants, Nuclear power stations, Temperature, Computer programming, Computer software, Heat transfer, Matlab, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Operating temperature, Performance, Steady state, Thermal efficiency, Water
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