Gas Cooled Reactors

The concept of the Pebble bed reactor (PBR), a  graphite-moderated, helium-cooled high temperature reactor, stands out of the high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGR) owing to numerous advantages:

• On the condition that certain criteria (slender cores, low core power density)  are met, a core melt-down is physically impossible.
• High gas temperatures (+900°C) allow a variety of process heat applications (e.g. hydrogen production, lignite refinement, oil sand recovery)
• Numerous experimental and prototype reactors have already proven the technical feasibility.

The Generation IV International Forum identified the high temperature reactor (HTR) as future technology.  The market maturity of the HTR is envisaged for 2030. The US, the EU and Asia are very active in this field of research and development in order to implement the HTR economically sound.   From a German perspective, the assessment of the reactor security is essential.   The team GAS-COOLED REACTORS is concerned with the question of whether radio-active fission products can be held back by existing fission product barriers, and whether radio-active source term is under legal limits in any circumstance (normal operation and hazardous incident). The team currently focuses on the first two fission product barriers.

• Andreas Andris, M.Eng.
• Rico Hübscher, M.Sc.
• Erik Findeisen