Gas cooled nuclear reactor for submarine

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Subject: Gas cooled nuclear reactor for submarine
Adamantine 1/20/2005 3:11:11 PM

Back in early 1990s, I read from Naval Proceedings about the advantage of Gas Cooled Nuclear Reactor vis a vis PWR and Liquid Metal Reactor. Any more info on this ? Is there any research program on such reactor or at least rumour about such research ?

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Random NucE Student RE:Gas cooled nuclear reactor for submarine 6/21/2005 6:36:26 PM

The turbine used in a closed Brayton cycle does not need to be inside the shielded volume of the reactor compartment. Most gas cooled reactor designs call for helium as the coolant. Helium has an extremely low microscopic cross section for absorption and the density of any gas is considerably less than for water. These factors combine to make the macroscopic cross section for absorption much lower than that for water. The helium doesn't become activated! Downstream of the moisture separators in Advanced Boiling Water Reactors is a superheater. It is usually an additional moisture separator coated with a decay heat source. A good source of information, if you're interested in some deep reading, is John LaMarsh's, "An Introduction to Nuclear Engineering." It covers basics like activation, shielding and basic reactor types. In addition, it talks about large reactor acccidents and basic neutron diffusion theory.

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