Kilopower空间堆掉落事故临界安全问题研究

Study of Criticality Safety Issue of Kilopower Space Reactor during Launch Failure Accident

美国Kilopower空间堆在掉落事故下的k eff不满足我国现行空间堆掉落临界安全要求。该反应堆在掉落过程中,若反射层外围的B 4C脱落,则存在瞬发超临界的严重安全隐患。针对此问题,本文对反应堆方案进行调整,提出3种解决方案,各方案均可满足掉落临界安全要求。此外,为研究各方案的优劣,从尺寸、质量、物理和热工运行特性等方面对各方案进行综合比较,提出了最优建议方案。

The k eff of the US Kilopower space reactor during launch failure accident cannot meet the criticality safety requirement of our country space reactor.During the launch failure accident,the reactor may run into a disastrous situation of prompt super criticality if the B 4C outside the radial reflector is missing.Three different schemes were proposed in order to solve the problem in this paper.All of these schemes can meet the criticality safety requirement.Besides,the comprehensive comparison of these schemes related to the volume,mass,and the physical and thermal-hydraulics performance was carried out,and a best scheme was chosen and proposed.