Verification Test of Pneumatic Conveying of Small Absorber Ball System for 10 MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Test Reactor

The small absorber ball system is the second shutdown system of the 10 MW high temperature gascooled test reactor(HTR10). This system is devoted after the emergent shutdown and before the reopen of the HTR10. When the B4C balls are transported from the reflector columns of the reactor core to the ball storage vessels on the reactor pressure vessel top by the pneumatic suction conveying process, the reactor can be reopened safely. The densephase conveying theory is used to calculate the pressure lost of the heliumB4C ball twophase flow. And a pneumatic conveying test is performed by using air(0.22 MPa) and helium(1.6 MPa) as media with real small absorber balls on a fullscale 1∶1 loop. Test result data according with the theoretic conclusion prove that the function of pneumatic conveying of the small absorber ball system is capable to perform satisfactorily at operating temperatures of the reactor.