HTR-10
HTR-10 is a 10 MWt prototype pebble bed reactor at Tsinghua University in China. Construction began in 1995, achieving its first criticality in December 2000, and was operated in full power condition in January 2003.
Two HTR-PM units, scaled up versions of the HTR-10 with 250-MWt capacity, are under construction at the Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Rongcheng in Shandong Province.Development
HTR-10 is modeled after the German HTR-MODUL. Like the HTR-MODUL, HTR-10 is claimed to be fundamentally safer, potentially cheaper and more efficient than other nuclear reactor designs. Outlet temperature ranges between, which allows these reactors to generate hydrogen as a byproduct efficiently, thus supplying inexpensive and non-polluting fuel for fuel cell powered vehicles.
HTR-10 is a pebble-bed reactor HTGR utilizing spherical fuel elements with ceramic coated fuel particles.
The reactor core has a diameter of 1.8 m, a mean height of 1.97 m and the volume of 5.0 m³, and is surrounded by graphite reflectors.
The core is composed of 27,000 fuel elements. The fuel elements use low enriched uranium with a design mean burn up of 80,000 MWd/t. The pressure of the primary helium coolant circuit is 3.0 Mpa.
