Falling Characteristic Analysis of Passive Drive Mechanism of Absorber Ball Shutdown System for HTR-PM

The absorber ball shutdown system is a key system and related to reactivity control in HTR-PM, which has once achieved power regulation and cold shutdown of the nuclear reactor. Passive drive mechanism of absorber ball shutdown system has been designed for HTR-PM reactor safety before. Ball dropping valve can be automatically opened by gravity when loss of offsite power happens, then a mass of balls with BC₄ fall into reactor core for function implementation. Therefore drive mechanism reliability is fairly important for absorber ball shutdown system in HTR-PM. Experiments on passive drive mechanism have been carried out in this study. Falling distance and falling time of drive mechanism have been recorded and analyzed with and without absorber ball, as well as at ambient temperature and in the heating conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that designed passive drive mechanism can shift reliably. Ball dropping valve can freely open each time without absorber balls in the storage vessel. Basically present design of passive drive mechanism for absorber ball shutdown system can meet the requirement of actual reactor application.