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Pebble Bed Reactors
The pebble-bed reactor (PBR) is a design for a graphite-Neutron moderator, moderated, gas cooled reactor, gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is a type of very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR), one of the six classes of nuclear reactors in the Generation IV reactor, Generation IV initiative. The basic design features spherical fuel elements called pebbles. These tennis ball-sized elements (approx. in diameter) are made of pyrolytic carbon, pyrolytic graphite (which acts as the moderator), and contain thousands of fuel particles called Nuclear_fuel#TRISO_fuel, tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) particles. These TRISO particles consist of a fissile material (such as Uranium-235, ) surrounded by a ceramic coating of silicon carbide for structural integrity and fission product containment. Thousands of pebbles are amassed to create a reactor core. The core is cooled by a gas that does not react chemically with the fuel elements, such as helium, nitrogen or carbon dioxide. Other coolants such ...
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Pebble Bed Reactor Scheme (English)
A pebble is a clastic rocks, clast of rock (geology), rock with a grain size, particle size of based on the Particle size (grain size), Udden-Wentworth scale of sedimentology. Pebbles are generally considered larger than Granule (geology), granules ( in diameter) and smaller than Cobble (geology), cobbles ( in diameter). A rock made predominantly of pebbles is termed a conglomerate (geology), conglomerate. oldowan, Pebble tools are among the earliest known man-made artifacts, dating from the Palaeolithic period of human history. A beach composed chiefly of surface pebbles is commonly termed a shingle beach. This type of beach has armor (hydrology), armoring characteristics with respect to wave erosion, as well as ecological niches that provide habitat for animals and plants. Inshore banks of shingle (large quantities of pebbles) exist in some locations, such as the entrance to the River Ore, England, where the moving banks of shingle give notable navigational challenges. Pe ...
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Passive Nuclear Safety
Passive nuclear safety is a design approach for safety features, implemented in a nuclear reactor, that does not require any active intervention on the part of the operator or electrical/electronic feedback in order to bring the reactor to a safe shutdown state, in the event of a particular type of emergency (usually overheating resulting from a loss of coolant or loss of coolant flow). Such design features tend to rely on the engineering of components such that their predicted behaviour would slow down, rather than accelerate the deterioration of the reactor state; they typically take advantage of natural forces or phenomena such as gravity, buoyancy, pressure differences, conduction or natural heat convection to accomplish safety functions without requiring an active power source. Many older common reactor designs use passive safety systems to a limited extent, rather, relying on active safety systems such as diesel-powered motors. Some newer reactor designs feature more passiv ...
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General Atomics
General Atomics (GA) is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, that specializes in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion energy. The company also provides research and manufacturing services for remotely operated surveillance aircraft, including its MQ-1 Predator drones, airborne sensors, and advanced electric, electronic, wireless, and laser technologies. History General Atomics was founded on July 18, 1955, in San Diego, California, by Frederic de Hoffmann with assistance from notable physicists Edward Teller and Freeman Dyson. The company was originally part of the General Atomic division of General Dynamics "for harnessing the power of nuclear technologies". GA's first offices were in the General Dynamics facility on Hancock Street in San Diego. GA also used a schoolhouse on San Diego's Barnard Street as its temporary headquarters, which it would l ...
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University Of California At Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, it is the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the University of California system. Berkeley has an enrollment of more than 45,000 students. The university is organized around fifteen schools of study on the same campus, including the College of Chemistry, the College of Engineering, College of Letters and Science, and the Haas School of Business. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was originally founded as part of the university. Berkeley was a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was one of the original eight " Public Ivy" schools. In 2021, the federal funding for campus research and devel ...
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Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science. In response to the increasing Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialization of the United States, William Barton Rogers organized a school in Boston to create "useful knowledge." Initially funded by a land-grant universities, federal land grant, the institute adopted a Polytechnic, polytechnic model that stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. MIT moved from Boston to Cambridge in 1916 and grew rapidly through collaboration with private industry, military branches, and new federal basic research agencies, the formation of which was influenced by MIT faculty like Vannevar Bush. In the late twentieth century, MIT became a leading center for research in compu ...
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HTR-PM
The HTR-PM ( zh, 球床模块式高温气冷堆核电站) is a Chinese small modular nuclear reactor. It is a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) pebble-bed generation IV reactor evolved from the HTR-10 prototype. The technology is intended to replace coal-fired power plants in China's interior, in line with the country's plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. The first plant has an electrical output of 210 MW. It began producing power in December 2021 and started commercial operation in late 2023. Technology The HTR-PM is a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) pebble-bed reactor. While the German AVR and THTR-300, operating from 1969 to 1988, were the first pebble-bed reactors and operated at similar temperatures, the HTR-PM is the first such design using modular construction and the second small modular reactor, following Russia's ''Akademik Lomonosov'' floating plant in 2019. It is a generation IV design. The technology is based on the HTR-10 prototype reactor. The ...
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HTR-10
HTR-10 is a 10 MWt prototype high-temperature gas-cooled, pebble-bed reactor at Tsinghua University in China. Construction began in 1995, achieving its first criticality in December 2000, and was operated in full power condition in January 2003. Two HTR-PM reactors, scaled up versions of the HTR-10 with 250-MWt capacity, were installed at the Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Rongcheng in Shandong Province and achieved first criticality in September 2021. Development The Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology (INET) of Tsinghua University is the lead designer for the HTR-10 reactor. The project was approved by the State Council in March 1992. The Design Criteria and Safety Analysis Report for the HTR-10 were approved in August 1992 and March 1993. In August 1994, Siemens/Interatom reviewed the fundamental design of the HTR-10 and exchanged knowledge gained from their advanced design efforts on the HTR-MODUL with INET. Like the HTR-MODUL, HTR-10 is claimed t ...
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China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and Borders of China, borders fourteen countries by land across an area of nearly , making it the list of countries and dependencies by area, third-largest country by land area. The country is divided into 33 Province-level divisions of China, province-level divisions: 22 provinces of China, provinces, 5 autonomous regions of China, autonomous regions, 4 direct-administered municipalities of China, municipalities, and 2 semi-autonomous special administrative regions. Beijing is the country's capital, while Shanghai is List of cities in China by population, its most populous city by urban area and largest financial center. Considered one of six ...
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PBMR
The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a particular design of pebble bed reactor developed by South African company PBMR (Pty) Ltd from 1994 until 2009. PBMR facilities include gas turbine and heat transfer labs at the Potchefstroom Campus of North-West University, and at Pelindaba, a high pressure and temperature helium test rig, as well as a prototype fuel fabrication plant. A planned test reactor at Koeberg Nuclear Power Station was not built. Reactor design The PBMR is characterised by inherent safety features, which mean that no human error or equipment failure can cause an accident that would harm the public. Heat from the PBMR can be used for a variety of industrial process applications, including process steam for cogeneration applications, in-situ oil sands recovery, ethanol applications, refinery and petrochemical applications. The high temperature heat can also be used to reform methane to produce syngas (where the syngas can be used as feedstock to produce hyd ...
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South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of , the country has Demographics of South Africa, a population of over 64 million people. Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament of South Africa, Parliament, is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital. The largest, most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban. Cradle of Humankind, Archaeological findings suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and modern humans inhabited the ...
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Rudolf Schulten
Rudolf Schulten (16 August 1923 – 27 April 1996) was a German physicist who was professor at RWTH Aachen University and the main developer of the pebble bed reactor design, which was originally invented by Farrington Daniels. Schulten's concept compacts silicon carbide-coated uranium granules into hard, billiard-ball-like graphite spheres to be used as fuel for a new high temperature, helium-cooled type of nuclear reactor. AVR reactor The idea took root and in due course a 46 MWth (megawatt thermal) experimental pebble bed reactor (the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor, or AVR reactor) was built at the Jülich Research Centre in Jülich, West Germany. It operated for 21 years but was shut down in the wake of Chernobyl, and multiple safety issues. HTR-MODUL project Some of the last pebble fuel tested in the AVR was for a low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel cycle anticipated for use in the HTR-MODUL project design by Interatom/SIEMENS. South African Pebble Bed Modular Rea ...
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AVR Reactor
The AVR reactor () was a prototype pebble-bed reactor, located immediately adjacent to Jülich Research Centre in West Germany, constructed in 1960, grid connected in 1967 and shut down in 1988. It was a 15 MWe, 46 MWt test reactor used to develop and test a variety of fuels and machinery. The AVR was based on the concept of a "Daniels pile" by Farrington Daniels, the inventor of pebble bed reactors. Rudolf Schulten is commonly recognized as the intellectual father of the reactor. A consortium of 15 community electric companies owned and operated the plant. Over its lifetime the reactor had many accidents, earning it the name "shipwreck." From 2011 to 2014, outside experts examined the historical operations and operational hazards and described serious concealed problems and wrongdoings in their final 2014 report. For example, in 1978 operators bypassed reactor shutdown controls to delay an emergency shutdown during an accident for six days. In 2014 the JRC and AVR publicly ...
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