Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR)
A worldwide effort is underway to develop more economical, efficient, environmentally acceptable, and safer nuclear energy for electricity generation and industrial process heat applications. A High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR)
is considered as a safe, efficient, environmentally acceptable, and economical hightemperature energy source for electricity generation and industrial process heat applications such as the production of hydrogen. High-temperature gas-cooled reactor [1],
is one of the most probable solutions among the generation IV advanced reactors
[2, 3].
1.1.1 Classification and Brief History
High-temperature gas-cooled reactor has been developed for decades due to its attractive inherent safety and ability to provide a high-temperature for the industry. There
are two existing schemes of the nuclear reactor core in HTGRs. One is formed by
graphite prismatic blocks with embedded fuel pellets and the other is a pebble bed
filled with fuel elements.
The prismatic core high-temperature gas-cooled reactor includes the Gas TurbineModular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) [4, 5], in the USA and Russia, and the HighTemperature Thorium Reactor (HTTR) [6, 7], in Japan. The pebble-bed hightemperature gas-cooled reactor is the current mainstream technical solution for the
HTGR. It has been chosen by many test and demonstration facilities, including the
prototype reactor known as Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchs Reaktor (AVR) in Germany [8–10], the Modular Pebble Bed Reactor (MPBR) in the USA [11, 12], the
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa [13, 14]. As a demonstration
reactor, i.e., the 10MW High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Test Module, named
HTR-10, was developed by the Institute of Nuclear and new Energy Technology
© Tsinghua University Press 2021
S. Jiang et al., Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer in Pebble Bed Reactor Core,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9565-3_1
1
Introduction
1.1 High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (HTGR)
A worldwide effort is underway to develop more economical, efficient, environmentally acceptable, and safer nuclear energy for electricity generation and industrial process heat applications. A High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor (HTGR)
is considered as a safe, efficient, environmentally acceptable, and economical hightemperature energy source for electricity generation and industrial process heat applications such as the production of hydrogen. High-temperature gas-cooled reactor [1],
is one of the most probable solutions among the generation IV advanced reactors
[2, 3].
1.1.1 Classification and Brief History
High-temperature gas-cooled reactor has been developed for decades due to its attractive inherent safety and ability to provide a high-temperature for the industry. There
are two existing schemes of the nuclear reactor core in HTGRs. One is formed by
graphite prismatic blocks with embedded fuel pellets and the other is a pebble bed
filled with fuel elements.
The prismatic core high-temperature gas-cooled reactor includes the Gas TurbineModular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) [4, 5], in the USA and Russia, and the HighTemperature Thorium Reactor (HTTR) [6, 7], in Japan. The pebble-bed hightemperature gas-cooled reactor is the current mainstream technical solution for the
HTGR. It has been chosen by many test and demonstration facilities, including the
prototype reactor known as Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchs Reaktor (AVR) in Germany [8–10], the Modular Pebble Bed Reactor (MPBR) in the USA [11, 12], the
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa [13, 14]. As a demonstration
reactor, i.e., the 10MW High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor Test Module, named
HTR-10, was developed by the Institute of Nuclear and new Energy Technology
© Tsinghua University Press 2021
S. Jiang et al., Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer in Pebble Bed Reactor Core,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9565-3_1
1