Heat pipe cooled microreactor applications using BlueCRAB

Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is preparing to review a wide range non-light water reactors (LWRs) including heat pipe cooled microreactors. These microreactors are expected to have low thermal power and large safety margins partly due to the ability of heat pipes to passively reject heat. However, modeling and simulation of heat pipe cooled microreactors are a challenge due to their novelty. The NRC is developing its capability to model and simulate microreactors using the BlueCRAB suite of codes. This paper describes the NRC approach to non-LWRs and the initial efforts to simulate heat pipe cooled microreactors.