HEAT PIPES IN NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

The paper provides an overview of technical solutions for using of heat pipes in nuclear power plants both developed and operating. The review based on the scientific, technical and patent literature shows wide application heat pipes as heat transfer devices. Using of them for small and super-small power plants seems to be especially effective, because of high specific cost of plants with circulating coolants. A heat pipe is a device transferrind the heat by means of evaporation and condensation of a coolant circulating automatically under the action of capillar or gravitation forces. Heat pipes are used rather widely, both abroad and in Russia. The first application of a heat pipe principle in nuclear power plants was published in 1957, even before the emergence of the term "heat pipe". Now, there are about 300 patents in the world related to heat pipes application in nuclear power plants. Theare are seweral thouthands articles on the development of nuclear reactors with heat pipes have been published in the scientific and technical literature. One should expect that fifth-generation nuclear reactors cooled by heat pipes without any mechanisms and machines for the circulation of the coolant, as well as without the consumption of mechanical and electrical energy, will be appeared in this decade.