Self-acting afterheat removal in high temperature gas cooled reactors

Much more nuclear energy capacity is needed than currently installed to meet the demand of energy and the requirement on environment protection in the next decades. More stringent nuclear safety standards have to be established for future nuclear power plants. The philosophy of a catastrophe-free nuclear technology is presented in this paper. The issue of afterheat removal of high temperature gas cooled reactors is handled. It is a striking inherent safety feature of the modular high temperature gas cooled reactor design that the afterheat removal takes place without any active core cooling systems.