The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) advised that cold functional test for the primary circuit of the first reactor of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power demonstration project was successfully completed on Oct 19.
The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power demonstration project, one of the National Science and Technology Major Projects, is the first of its kind globally.
Different from the cold functional test of other reactor types, the cold functional test of the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power demonstration project uses compressed air as the test medium. It is pressurized in stages to the maximum test pressure of 8.9MPa for the primary loop pressure boundary strength performance test.
Then the test reduces the pressure to 8.0MPa and holds for more than 24 hours to measure the leakage rate of the primary circuit. At the same time, the deformation and displacement of the primary circuit pressure vessel under pressure are investigated, and a preliminary judgment is made on the effectiveness of the supporting system.
The test results show that all indicators of the first reactor of the demonstration project meet the design requirements, effectively verifying the reliability of the quality of manufacturing and installation of nuclear island equipment for the demonstration project.
The project facility is located at the Shidaowan nuclear power plant in Weihai city, in East China’s Shandong province
CNNC and Tsinghua University have jointly developed the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) NPP, the world’s first fourth-generation NPP. With its inherent safety, the HTGR NPP will play a significant role in the fields of petrochemicals, coal gasification and liquefaction, reduction of steelmaking, thermochemical hydrogen production, and viscous-oil thermal recovery.
(Source: CNNC)