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DOE OSTI · 2472941

Single Primary Heat Extraction and Removal Emulator (SPHERE) Long Duration Testing

Sellers, Zachary Don·Hartvigsen, Jeremy Lee·Neumann, Travis Donavan·Sabharwall, Piyush
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Abstract

For heat-pipe cooled microreactor development, it is essential to understand the characteristics of heat pipes and how they function under a wide range of operating conditions. An important process for heat-pipe cooled microreactor development is the passive heat removal and how the performance may change over long periods of time. Increased experimental data provides additional information to assess the operational lifetime of alkali metal heat pipes. Idaho National Laboratory has completed testing over a long duration of a high-performance sodium filled heat pipe while monitoring axial temperature profile, power supplied by the heaters, and heat removed by a gas-gap calorimeter. The results from this testing can aid in heat pipe validation efforts.

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22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTIONHeat pipemicroreactor

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Sellers, Zachary Don, Hartvigsen, Jeremy Lee, Neumann, Travis Donavan, Sabharwall, Piyush. 2024-05-16. Single Primary Heat Extraction and Removal Emulator (SPHERE) Long Duration Testing. https://doi.org/10.2172/2472941

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