Experimental design on performance improvement of the helium purification system of HTR 10

The quality of the helium in the primary loop is very important for the safe and stable operations of high temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) which adopt helium as primary coolant. A helium purification system has been designed and constructed in 10MW high temperature gascooled reactor (HTR-10) which can keep the helium quality by continuous purification process. According to the experimental research on the characteristics of the helium purification and helium auxiliary system of HTR-10, a small test rig was designed and constructed to optimize and improve the helium purification and regeneration processes. By the performance test on the purification equipment including the copper oxide bed, molecular sieve bed, active charcoal bed, etc., the new process plan was proposed, which can improve the helium purification efficiency and regeneration performance, and meet the technical requirements of ultrahigh temperature operation of HTR-10 in future.