Integrated Design of a Reactor Core for the Rolls-Royce Small Modular Reactor Project

Abstract

Rolls-Royce and a UK Consortium are progressing the design and development of a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Power Station. The SMR programme is a phased design cycle, progressing through the Rolls-Royce gated review process. The project aims to deploy the first of a kind SMR in the UK by the end of the next decade. In this paper, the development methodology for the reactor core design is discussed, along with a selection of the key technical challenges that have been addressed during the concept design phase. Lessons learned from past projects have been identified, to help improve the design efficiency for the SMR. The concept design has been developed in an iterative fashion, with different analysis disciplines carefully integrated around a common set of objectives. Key economic requirements for an SMR core include maximising fuel economy, cycle length and thermal power while remaining small enough to enable a modular build approach. Top-level safety requirements include control of reactivity, control of core temperature and control of release of radioactivity/radioactive material. A set of surrogate design limits has been used alongside the true safety limits to avoid the need for detailed transient subchannel or fuel performance analysis in this phase. This has allowed the design to mature and be characterised very quickly, while also maintaining high confidence that all performance and safety requirements will be met when detailed analyses are undertaken. This paper describes the different analyses that have been undertaken to date, including a variety of reactor physics and thermal hydraulics calculations. The paper discusses the limits used, how they have been used to optimise the design solution and why they provide high confidence in the core design’s performance.