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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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The current status of heat pipe R&D
Idaho National Laboratory under the Department of Energy–sponsored Microreactor Program recently conducted a comprehensive phenomena identification and ranking table (PIRT) exercise aimed at advancing heat pipe technology for microreactor applications.
Mauricio Tano, Pablo Rubiolo (Univ of Grenoble-Alpes), Julien Giraud, Veronique Ghetta (LPSC, CNRS/IN2P3)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 469-478
The main passive safety system of the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) is a cold plug, placed in the bottom of the reactor. In case of an uncontrolled temperature rise in the reactor core, this plug melts, allowing the draining of the molten fuel salt towards a safe configuration. In the present paper, the main physical phenomena occurring in the MSFR during the draining process is presented. Then, a physical model for simulating the draining process is introduced. This model is then used for analyzing different draining scenarios. Finally, the velocity and temperature fields obtained for this scenarios are analyzed in the light of safety considerations.