https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202124720006
THE UK NATIONAL THERMAL-HYDRAULICS FACILITY: MOTIVATIONS, DESIGN AND PLANNING STATUS
1 Nuclear Futures Institute Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG
2 UK Atomic Energy Authority Culham Science Centre, Oxfordshire OX14 3DB
3 Institute for Security Science and Technology Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ
m.dahlfors@bangor.ac.uk
jason.joannou@ukaea.uk
Published online: 22 February 2021
A UK National Thermal-Hydraulics Facility (NTHF) dedicated to supporting new reactor and other relevant business is being developed, one of the purposes being to deliver on the government’s carbon emission reduction commitments. The facility site is foreseen to be at Menai Science Park on the isle of Anglesey in North Wales, a region expected to see significant low carbon energy deployment in coming years. The UK NTHF is envisioned to cater for the needs of emerging nuclear in the UK – but also to serve as a hardware platform for international thermal-hydraulics research collaboration. Plans are to construct a platform capable of maintaining several test loops including support for the UK’s on-going, conventional nuclear new build programme as well as Gen-IV systems and associated materials like molten salt and liquid metal coolant media. Motivations are given for NTHF expected capabilities and requirements, which form the basis for its current design and planning state.
Key words: Thermal-hydraulics / facility / testing / design
© 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.
