CAREM-25: A SMALL INNOVATIVE MODULAR NUCLEAR REACTOR

MARCEL CHRISTIAN PABLO; DELMASTRO, DARÍO; MAGNI, MARIA CELESTE

Madrid

Conferencia; 16th International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems (ICENES 2013); 2013

Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

In recent years, small modular reactors have attracted attention since they can successfully fulfill the requirements from emerging electricity markets. They use a proven technology together with novel designs including new engineering solutions relying on passive features. In this line is the CAREM-25 reactor designed to deliver 27MWe with a minimum operator feedback control. Its main features are: the primary circuit is fully contained in the reactor vessel (eliminating the possibility of LOCA occurrence), it has no cooling pumps (since natural convection drives the primary flow), pressurization is achieved by balancing the vapor production and condensation in the vessel (thus eliminating the need of an active external subsystem), etc. CAREM-25 design decreases the amount of sensitive components and potentially risk interaction with the environment. In this article the CAREM-25 most important thermal-hydraulic phenomena are presented, emphasizing in the resulting feedbacks which makes the CAREM-25 behavior to be different from existing water cooled reactors. Some of the most important phenomena are self-pressurization, natural circulation, flashing, subcooled boiling, density wave instabilities, neutronic feedback, and condensation.