China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
1–10 of 62 posts
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#2Seems more efficient to bypass steam as a transfer medium. Just like in "The Martian".
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#3A small nuclear reactor in a swimming pool.. what could go wrong..
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#4A small nuclear reactor in a swimming pool.. what could go wrong..
Not much. This is actually a common reactor type, and you don't have to worry about things like cooling pumps going bad or high-pressure pipe breaks.
> The water acts as neutron moderator, cooling agent and radiation shield. The layer of water directly above the reactor core shields the radiation so completely that operators may work above the reactor safely. This design has two major advantages: the reactor is easily accessible and the whole primary cooling system, i.e. the pool water, is under normal pressure. This avoids the high temperatures and great pressures of nuclear power plants. Pool reactors are used as a source of neutrons and for training, and in rare instances for processing heat but not for electrical generation....Most research reactors are of the pool type.
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#5A small nuclear reactor in a swimming pool.. what could go wrong..
NC State University has a pool reactor on the main campus used in their nuclear reactor curriculum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina_State_Universit...
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#6>> around the same volume as an Olympic swimming pool.
>> with each 400-megawatt unit capable of warming 200,000 urban households.
>> with temperatures not exceeding 100 degrees Celsius,
Think about that for a minute. If the water isn't going to exceed 100c but the reactor is still going to pump out 400-megawatts, it isn't going to be a calm pool. They are going to have to pump insane amounts of water in and out of this pool if they want to keep things under 100c. That's fine. Just don't pretend this is going to hum along quietly like a research reactor. And don't tell me thing will remain at 100c should that flow of water be interrupted. Any non-boiling, low-pressure, reactor is going to need exponentially more cooling (by volume) than an equivalent traditional reactor. Let us hope they keep a lake nearby as backup.
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#7A small nuclear reactor in a swimming pool.. what could go wrong..
I think this comment shouldn't be downvoted because it's a common misunderstanding rooted in how unintuitive it is that water is so good at blocking radiation.
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#8A small nuclear reactor in a swimming pool.. what could go wrong..
A lot less than you think. These are the reactors normally used for research and they are rather safe, as pretty much all modern reactors are.
Re: China's Yanlong: a small nuclear reactor strictly for district heating
#9>> around the same volume as an Olympic swimming pool. >> with each 400-megawatt unit capable of warming 200,000 urban households. >> with temperatures not exceeding 100 degrees Celsius, Think about that for a minute. If the water isn't going to exceed 100c but the reactor is still going to pump out 400-megawatts, it isn't going to be a calm pool. They are going to have to pump insane amounts of water in and out of t…
It is possible to regulate the output of a nuclear reactor. In case the pool boils off in some freak accident, the chain reaction also stops, because water is acting as a neutron moderator in these designs. So you only have to ensure that the residual heat from normal decay doesn't melt the reactor. That doesn't sound too hard.