VHTR – Very-High-Temperature Reactor System

VHTR – Very-High-Temperature Reactor System
The VHTR is a graphite-moderated, helium-cooled reactor with a once-through uranium fuel cycle. It supplies heat with core outlet temperatures of 1000oC, which enables applications such as hydrogen production or process heat for the petrochemical industry or others. The reference reactor is a 600 MWth core connected to an intermediate heat exchanger to deliver process heat. The reactor core can be a prismatic block core such as the operating Japanese HTTR, or a pebble-bed core such as the operating Chinese HTR-10. For hydrogen production, the system supplies heat that could be used efficiently by the thermochemical iodine-sulfur process.
The VHTR system is designed to be a high-efficiency system that can supply process heat to a broad spectrum of high-temperature and energy-intensive, nonelectric processes. The system may incorporate electricity generating equipment to meet cogeneration needs. The system also has the flexibility to adopt U/Pu fuel cycles and offer enhanced waste minimization. Thus, the VHTR offers a broad range of process heat applications and an option for high efficiency electricity production, while retaining the desirable safety characteristics offered by modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.