Passive cooling system for spent fuel pool using thermosiphon heat pipe and water jacket

Abstract

Following the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident, there has been increased research focus on passive cooling systems for spent fuel pool, particularly in ensuring safety during power outages. Heat pipes, known for their ability to transfer substantial amounts of heat without external power, emerge as a viable solution for such passive systems. This study introduces an integrated cooling system employing heat pipes in tandem with air cooling towers for accident scenarios and water jackets for normal operations to dissipate decay heat from spent fuel. A in-house code was developed using MATLAB to evaluate the system's cooling performance, based on thermal resistance. The code considers diverse nuclear plant environments, taking into account variables such as air temperature and the temperature and mass flow rate of cooling water entering the water jackets. Furthermore, the study involves calculating the minimum pump power necessary for the system's operation. The results demonstrate that the proposed integrative cooling system maintains the temperature of the spent fuel pool below the target threshold under both normal and accident conditions, thereby ensuring the pool's safety.