System for hydrogen injection for boiling water reactors (BWRs) during startup / shutdown

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10964436-B2
Application number	US-201916239063-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 3, 2019
Priority date	Dec 21, 2012
Publication date	Mar 30, 2021
Grant date	Mar 30, 2021

Abstract

A system for injecting hydrogen into Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) reactor support systems in operation during reactor startup and/or shutdown. The system the hydrogen injection system includes at least one hydrogen source, flow control equipment, and pressure control equipment. The pressure control equipment being configured to regulate a pressure of a hydrogen flow between the at least one hydrogen source and the at least one first BWR support system based upon an operating pressure of the at least one first BWR support system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
at least one first BWR support system that operates during a reactor startup mode or a reactor shutdown mode; and
a hydrogen injection system fluidly connected to the at least one first BWR support system, the hydrogen injection system including
at least one hydrogen source,
flow control equipment, the flow control equipment including automatic flow controls,
pressure control equipment,
the pressure control equipment being configured to
measure a first pressure of a hydrogen flow at an in-line hydrogen booster and at least one second pressure of the hydrogen flow at a hydrogen injection point for the at least one first BWR support system, and
automatically control a pressure and a flowrate of the hydrogen flow traveling through the in-line hydrogen booster and towards the at least one first BWR support system, via a use of the automatic flow controls, based on the first pressure and the at least one second pressure.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first BWR support system experiences a reactor water fluid flow through the at least one first BWR support system during the reactor startup mode or the reactor shutdown mode.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first BWR support system is at least one of a Reactor Water Cleanup (RWCU) return line or a Feedwater Recirculation line.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the pressure control equipment is further configured to match the pressure of the hydrogen flow to an operating pressure of the at least one first BWR support system, the operating pressure of the at least one first BWR support system being variable during the reactor startup mode or the reactor shutdown mode, the at least one second pressure corresponding to the operating pressure.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the hydrogen injection system further includes,
a hydrogen booster configured to boost the pressure of the hydrogen flow.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the hydrogen booster is one of a hydraulically-driven booster or a pneumatically-driven booster.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the hydrogen booster is configured to boost the pressure of the hydrogen flow to a variable pressure of up to 1,100 psig.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the flow control equipment is located upstream of the hydrogen booster.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the flow control equipment is a lower pressure class than the hydrogen booster.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the hydrogen source is at least one of a hydrogen gas bottle, a hydrogen gas truck or a liquid hydrogen storage structure.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one first BWR support system experiences fluid operating temperatures as low as about 200° F. and fluid operating pressures as high as 1,1000 psig during the reactor startup mode or reactor shutdown mode.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the pressure control equipment is further configured to
compress the hydrogen flow to boost the pressure of the hydrogen flow using an in-line hydrogen booster, the in-line hydrogen booster being located between the at least one hydrogen source and the at least one first BWR support system.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the automatic flow controls include at least one air operated valve.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the at least one air operated valve includes at least one first automatically controlled actuator for the at least one air operated valve.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the at least one first automatically controlled actuator is an air operated actuator.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the automatic flow controls are located upstream of the in-line hydrogen booster, the automatic flow controls being a lower pressure class than the in-line hydrogen booster.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the pressure control equipment is configured to measure the first pressure of the hydrogen flow at the in-line hydrogen booster by,
measuring the first pressure at a location that is at least one of directly before the in-line hydrogen booster or directly after the in-line hydrogen booster.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the pressure control equipment is further configured to automatically control the pressure and the flowrate by,
comparing the first pressure to the at least one second pressure.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein,
the at least one first BWR support system includes a first BWR support system and a second BWR support system, and
the at least one second pressure includes a second pressure at a first hydrogen injection point of the first BWR support system and a third pressure at a second hydrogen injection point of the second BWR support system, and
the pressure control equipment is further configured to regulate the pressure of the hydrogen flow by,
comparing the first pressure to the second pressure and the third pressure, and
automatically controlling the flowrate of the hydrogen flow based on the comparing of the first pressure to the second pressure and the third pressure.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the second pressure equals a first operating pressure of the first BWR support system and the third pressure equals a second operating pressure of the second BWR support system.

Assignees

• Ge Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas Llc

Inventors

• Whittaker John C
• Gonzaga Angelo Foz
• Shu Paul Y
• Tran Luong C

Classifications

• Y02E30/30

  Nuclear fission reactors · CPC title

• G21C17/0225 Primary

  Chemical surface treatment, e.g. corrosion (corrosion prevention in presence of water from scale removal or by modification of the properties of the liquid C02F5/00; inhibiting corrosion by adding corrosion inhibitors C23F11/00) · CPC title

• G21C19/303 Primary

  specially adapted for gases (decontamination of gases G21F9/02) · CPC title

• G21D3/10 Primary

  by a combination of a variable derived from neutron flux with other controlling variables, e.g. derived from temperature, cooling flow, pressure · CPC title

• G21D1/04

  Pumping arrangements (within the reactor pressure vessel G21C15/24; electrodynamic pumps H02K44/02) · CPC title