Intermediate Heat Transfer Loop Study for High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor

A number of possible configurations for a system that transfers heat between the nuclear reactor and the hydrogen and/or electrical generation plants were identified. These configurations included both direct and indirect cycles for the production of electricity. Both helium and liquid salts were considered as the working fluid in the intermediate heat transport loop. Methods were developed to perform thermal-hydraulic and cycleefficiency evaluations of the different configurations and coolants. The thermal-hydraulic evaluations estimated the sizes of various components in the intermediate heat transport loop for the different configurations. This paper also includes a portion of stress analyses performed on pipe configurations