https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124701005
DESIGN OPTIMIZATION OF THE HOLOS-QUAD MICRO-REACTOR CONCEPT
1 Argonne National Laboratory 9700 S. Cass Avenue Argonne, IL 60439, USA
2 HolosGen LLC Manassas Park, Virginia, USA
Published online: 22 February 2021
The Holos-Quad micro-reactor concept is proposed by HolosGen LLC to generate 22 MWt with a lifetime of approximately 8 effective full power years (EFPYs) for civilian applications. The design is based on a very innovative high-temperature gas-cooled reactor concept using four Subcritical Power Modules (SPMs) that fit into one commercial 40-foot transport ISO container. A rigorous design approach was employed in order to ensure that all input parameters were fully investigated and the best solutions possible were considered. The first step of this approach consisted of properly defining the Holos-Quad design problem by identifying the design objectives, the operational constraints, and the input parameters. In the second step, a sensitivity analysis was performed to enable a preliminary investigation of the input parameters to identify the correlations among input and output variables. Finally, the design optimization was performed in the third step, employing a genetic algorithm to effectively explore the highly constrained input parameters and find global optimal solutions. The multi-objective optimization identified various core solutions that would be optimum solutions for different types of applications. For applications where economics matters less and the ease of transportation matters more, a core weight of ~15 tons could achieve a lifetime of ~3.5 EFPYs. For applications where economics matters more and the ease of transportation matters less, a lifetime of 8.3 EFPYs could be achieved with a total core weight of ~26.7 tons.
Key words: micro-reactor / design optimization / HTGR
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
