Nuclear Production of Hydrogen, Fourth Information Exchange ...

ALTERNATE VHTR/HTE INTERFACE FOR MITIGATING TRITIUM TRANSPORT AND STRUCTURE CREEP
Figure 4: Primary system and intermediate system heat exchanger
Table 1: Conditions in VHTR/HTE plant with reference interface
Reactor
Power, MW 600
Outlet temperature, C 887
Inlet temperature, C 490
PCU
Turbine inlet temperature, C 870
HP compressor outlet pressure, C 7.4
LP compressor outlet pressure, C 4.1
HTE
Cell outlet temperature, C 970
Cell pressure, MPa 5.0
Alternate interface
An overview of the alternate interface connecting the reactor to the electrolysis plant is shown in
Figure 5. The key difference from the reference interface of Figure 1 is the absence of the high
temperature process heat loop coupling the electrolysis plant to the reactor. High temperature heat is
needed as shown in the figure but it is not obtained from the reactor as described below. There is a
low temperature process heat loop linking the electrolysis plant to the reactor. But because it operates
at a relatively low temperature diffusion of tritium through structures and creep of structures is
significantly reduced from the reference interface case.
Figure 5: Combined plant with alternate interface
436 NUCLEAR PRODUCTION OF HYDROGEN – © OECD/NEA 2010