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{{Short description|Type of nuclear reactor that operates at high temperatures as part of normal operation}}
{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=AugustJune 20132024}}
[[File:"REFUELING FLOOR" AT ST. VRAIN NUCLEAR POWER PLANT - NARA - 544826.jpg|thumb|250 px|Refueling floor at [[Fort Saint Vrain Nuclear Power Plant|Fort Saint Vrain HTGR]], 1972]]
 
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|author=Evans D. Kitcher
|quote="The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) is a uranium-fueled, graphite-moderated, gas-cooled nuclear reactor design concept capable of producing very high core outlet temperatures"
}}</ref> All existing HTGR reactors use [[helium]] coolant. The reactor core can be either a "prismatic block" (reminiscent of a conventional reactor core) or a "[[Pebble-bed reactor|pebble-bed]]" core. [[China Huaneng Group]] currently operates [[HTR-PM]], a 250 MW HTGR power plant in [[Shandong province]], China.
 
The high operating temperatures of HTGR reactors potentially enable applications such as process heat or [[hydrogen]] production via the thermochemical [[sulfur–iodine cycle]]. A proposed development of the HGTR is the [[Generation IV reactor|Generation IV]] '''very-high-temperature reactor''' (VHTR) which would initially work with temperatures of 750 to 950&nbsp;°C.
 
== History ==
The HTGRuse designof wasa firsthigh-temperature, gas-cooled reactor for power production was proposed by thein staff1944 ofby the[[Farrington PowerDaniels]], Pilethen Divisionassociate director of the Clintonchemistry Laboratoriesdivision (knownat nowthe asUniversity of Chicago's [[Oak Ridge NationalMetallurgical Laboratory]]<ref. name="Ingersoll2007">{{cite journal|date=FebruaryInitially, Daniels envisaged a reactor using [[beryllium]] 2007|first1=Dmoderator.|last1=Ingersoll|first2=C.|last2=Forsberg|first3=P.|last3=MacDonald|title=Trade Studies forDevelopment of this high temperature design proposal continued at the Liquid-Salt-CooledPower VeryPile High-TemperatureDivision Reactor:of Fiscalthe YearClinton 2006Laboratories Progress(known Report|publisher=now as [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory|journal=Ornl/Tm-2006/140|url=http://nuclear.inl.gov/deliverables/docs/status_report_fy06_ornl-tm-2006-140.pdf|access-date=20 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716161529/http://nuclear.inl.gov/deliverables/docs/status_report_fy06_ornl-tm-2006-140.pdf|archive-date=16 July 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>]]) inuntil 1947.<ref name="CLL-HTGCPP">{{cite journal|title=Summary Report on Design and Development of High Temperature Gas-Cooled Power Pile|last=McCullough|first=C. Rodgers|author2=Staff, Power Pile Division |date=15 September 1947|publisher=Clinton Laboratories (now [[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]])|location=[[Oak Ridge, Tennessee|Oak Ridge]], [[Tennessee|TN]], USA|osti = 4359623|doi = 10.2172/4359623|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1026527/}}</ref>
Professor [[Rudolf Schulten]] in [[Germany]] also played a role in development during the 1950s. [[Peter Fortescue]], whilst at [[General Atomics]], was leader of the team responsible for the initial development of the High temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), as well as the [[Gas-cooled Fastfast Reactorreactor]] (GCFR) system.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ga.com/peter-fortescue-dies-at-102|title = Peter Fortescue Dies at 102}}</ref>
 
The [[Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station|Peach Bottom]] unit 1 reactor in the United States was the first HTGR to produce electricity, and did so very successfully, with operation from 1966 through 1974 as a technology demonstrator. [[Fort St. Vrain Generating Station]] was one example of this design that operated as an HTGR from 1979 to 1989. Though the reactor was beset by some problems which led to its decommissioning due to economic factors, it served as proof of the HTGR concept in the United States (though no new commercial HTGRs have been developed there since).<ref>[[IAEA]] [http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm/nkm/aws/htgr/ HTGR Knowledge Base]</ref>{{Failed verification|date=November 2009}}<!--this is insufficient, it is a database, not an article, though articles do exist on what happened to FSV in that knowledge base-->
 
Experimental HTGRs have also existed in the United Kingdom (the [[Dragon reactor]]) and Germany ([[AVR reactor]] and [[THTR-300]]), and currently exist in Japan (the [[High-temperature engineering test reactor]] using prismatic fuel with 30 [[MWTh|MW<sub>th</sub>]] of capacity) and China (the [[HTR-10]], a pebble-bed design with 10 MW<sub>e</sub> of generation). Two full-scale pebble-bed HTGRs, the [[HTR-PM]] reactors, each with 100 MW of electrical production capacity, have gone operational in China as of 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Demonstration-HTR-PM-grid-connected|title=Demonstration HTR PM prepares for grid connection : New Nuclear -– World Nuclear News|website=world-nuclear-news.org}}</ref>
 
== Reactor design ==
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=== Coolant ===
 
Helium has been the coolant used in all HTGRs to date. Helium is an [[inert gas]], so it will generally not chemically react with any material.<ref name="IAEA1996HTGRp61">{{cite web|url=http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm/nkm/aws/htgr/fulltext/29026666.pdf |title=High temperature gas cool reactor technology development |access-date=2009-05-08 |date=15 November 1996 |publisher=IAEA |pages=61 }}</ref> Additionally, exposing helium to neutron radiation does not make it radioactive,<ref name="InistHe">{{cite web |url=http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=849696 |title=Thermal performance and flow instabilities in a multi-channel, helium-cooled, porous metal divertor module |access-date=2009-05-08 |year=2000 |publisher=Inist |archive-date=30 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130043438/http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=849696 |url-status=dead }}</ref> unlike most other possible coolants.
 
=== Control ===
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|date=April 2011
|publisher=Idaho National Laboratory
|author=J. M. Beck, L. F. Pincock}}</ref> A further two HTGR reactors were brought on-line at China's [[HTR-PM]] site, in 2021/22.
 
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-datatable"
|-
!Facility<br />name
!Country
!Commissioned
!Shutdown
!No. of<br />reactors
!Fuel type
!Outlet<br />temperature (°C)
!Thermal<br />power (MW)
|-
| [[Dragon reactor]]<ref name=inl/> || [[United Kingdom]] || 1965 || 1967 || 1 || Prismatic || 750 || 21.5
|-
| [[Peach Bottom Nuclear Generating Station|Peach Bottom]]<ref name=inl/> || [[United States]] || 1967 || 19881974 || 1 || Prismatic || 700 - 726700–726 || 115
|-
| [[AVR reactor|AVR]]<ref name=inl/> || [[Germany]] || 1967 || 19741988 || 1 || Pebble bed || 950 || 46
|-
| [[Fort Saint Vrain Nuclear Power Plant|Fort Saint Vrain]]<ref name=inl/> || [[United States]] || 1979 || 1989 || 1 || Prismatic || 777 || 842
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| [[THTR-300]]<ref name=inl/> || [[Germany]] || 1985 || 1988 || 1 || Pebble bed || 750 || 750
|-
| [[High-temperature engineering test reactor|HTTR]]<ref name=inl/> || [[Japan]] || 1999|| Operational || 1 || Prismatic || 850 - 950850–950 || 30
|-
| [[HTR-10]]<ref name=inl/> || [[China]] || 2000 || Operational || 1 || Pebble bed || 700 || 10
|-
| [[HTR-PM]]<ref>https://aris.iaea.org/PDF/HTR-PM.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=August 2024}}</ref> || [[China]] || 2021 || Operational || 2 || Pebble bed || 750 || 250
|-
|}
 
Additionally, from 1969 to 1971, the 3 MW [[UHTREX|Ultra-High Temperature Reactor Experiment]] (UHTREX) was operated by [[Los Alamos National Laboratory]] to develop the technology of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors.<ref>
{{Citation
| last = Lipper
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| page = 117
| chapter = High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors Using Helium Coolant
| quote = Three of these plants, AVR, Peach Bottom, and Fort St. Vrain, are actual electrical generating plants, and two, Dragon and UHTREX, are experimental plants being used primarily to develop the technology of high -– temperature, gas-cooled reactors.
}}
</ref> In UHTREX, unlike HTGR reactors, helium coolant contacted nuclear fuel directly, reaching temperatures in excess of 1300&nbsp;°C.
 
===Proposed designs===
* [[Pebble bed modular reactor]] (1994) -– reactor proposed for [[Koeberg Nuclear Power Station]], South Africa
* [[Gas turbine modular helium reactor]] (1997) -– proposed reactor with gas turbine power conversion
* [[Next Generation Nuclear Plant]] (2005) -– a proposed Generation IV very-high-temperature reactor
* [[X-energy]] (2016) -– developers of a proposed Generation IV pebble-bed reactor
* [[U-Battery]] (2020) – a micro–small modular reactor design effort, discontinued in 2023
 
==References==
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*{{Cite web |url=http://neri.inel.gov/program_plans/pdfs/appendix_1.pdf |title=INL VHTR workshop summary |access-date=21 December 2005 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20071129121507/http://neri.inel.gov/program_plans/pdfs/appendix_1.pdf |archive-date=29 November 2007 |url-status=dead }}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.raphael-project.org/index.html |title=The European VHTR research & development programme: RAPHAEL |access-date=1 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120722104203/http://www.raphael-project.org/index.html |archive-date=22 July 2012 }}
*[http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/pb-ahtr/ Pebble Bed Advanced High Temperature Reactor (PB-AHTR)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101006155000/http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/pb-ahtr/ |date=6 October 2010 }}
* [http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm/nkm/aws/htgr/ IAEA HTGR Knowledge Base]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051208220206/http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/v37_1_04/article_02.shtml ORNL NGNP page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060511164737/http://www3.inspi.ufl.edu/icapp06/program/abstracts/6208.pdf INL Thermal-Hydraulic Analyses of the LS-VHTR]
* [[IFNEC]] slides from 2014 about Areva's [[SC-HTGR]]: [http://www.ifnec.org/Portals/0/Docs/IDWG%20Meeting%205-8-14/SC%20HTGR%20(Farshid%20Shahrokhi).pdf ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042654/http://www.ifnec.org/Portals/0/Docs/IDWG%20Meeting%205-8-14/SC%20HTGR%20(Farshid%20Shahrokhi).pdf |date=4 March 2016 }}
* The [[Office of Nuclear Energy]] reports to the IAEA in April 2014: [https://www.iaea.org/NuclearPower/Downloadable/Meetings/2014/2014-04-08-04-11-TM-NPTDS/7_OConnor01.pdf ]
 
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