Heat-Pipe-Cooled Reactor: A Review of Design Concepts and Research Program at CNL

Abstract

Small modular reactors (SMRs) are gaining more traction in Canada with the release of the pan- Canadian SMR Roadmap in 2018 and the more recent SMR Action Plan released in December 2020. The roadmap identified at least three potential applications for SMRs in Canada: (i) on-grid power in provinces phasing out coal in the near future, (ii) off-grid power, district heating and desalination in remote communities, and (iii) on- and off-grid power and heat for heavy industry. The off-grid applications favour transportable and high-reliability SMRs with very low electrical powers in the range of 1 to 20 MW. A heat pipe reactor (HPR), which uses heat pipes to remove fission heat from the reactor core, is one suitable candidate for such applications. This paper presents a review of HPR design concepts and a summary of the heat pipe research program at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL).