Construction and testing of the heat pipes for micro modular reactor applications

Recently there has been a notable increase in interest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Micro Modular Reactors (MMRs) due to their potential to improve energy supply reliability and reduce carbon emissions in isolated power grids. MMRs use high temperature heat pipes, which typically employ liquid metals such as potassium or sodium as the working fluid, to extract heat from the reactor core. The MISHA research project, funded by BMFTR, seeks to expand expertise in the application of heat pipes as the primary heat transfer mechanism in MMRs. This project includes the construction and the testing of full-scale high temperature heat pipes. The capillary structure is manufactured with a different technique for each type of internal design. The temperature measurements along the heat pipe, obtained with a thermal camera, provide a reliable means of verifying complete activation. Two experimental setups have been prepared to investigate the performance of the heat pipes manufactured. The measurement setups allow experiments under different conditions in terms of power input and inclination angle. The first experiments demonstrate that the manufactures heat pipes are working properly.