THE WATER BLOCK
THE WATER BLOCK
The pools
The JHR is a pool-type nuclear reactor,i.e. most of the reactor operations
using the reactor or the experimental
devices are performed under water:
The water block
Reactor cooling system
This material test reactor is cooled by water circulating in three independent systems:
• The primary system cools the reactor core with water circulating under pressure. This closed system is located inside the reactor building
• The secondary system is designed to cool the primary system through a series of heat exchangers positioned between these two separate systems in the reactor building.
• The external/ tertiary system then cools the secondary cooling system through another set of heat exchangers located in a different building (the cooling water building).
The first two systems are closed. Only the tertiary system is open as it gets its water from the SCP-EDF Canal (Boutre-Carros in Vinon-sur-Verdon) upstream, before releasing it further downstream near the Cadarache centre entrance). The maximum upstream-downstream temperature difference of this water is 1.5°C in compliance with regulations.
The volume of water drawn from the EDF canal and transiting through the JHRis estimated to reach about 40 million m3/year, with a peak flow up to 3 m3/s and an average flow of 1.3 m3/s.
The primary system water temperature should be around 25°C at the core inlet to comply with the reactor’s operating conditions and will be below 60°C at the core outlet.
