A Long-Term Energy Source Based on an HTGR Concept

Research on the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) concept concentrated on a reactor with a pebble bed core. Analysis focused on three areas: potential combinations of advanced fuel compositions and structural materials that improve performance characteristics of the pebble bed HTGR; an advanced pebble bed HTGR design with a helium temperature elevated to >1300 K that provides the possibility of obtaining higher efficiency of the thermodynamic cycle; prolonged operation of the pebble bed HTGR on a single fuel loading reaching high burnups. A description of the study and the results are given. Six significant conclusions were drawn, including the result that utilization of plutonium-based and mixed U-Pu compositions provides an increase of the fuel lifetime up to 10 years of operation with minimal external action required.