7. Main cooling system

7.1 Description

Carbon dioxide CO ₂ is the coolant used to transfer heat from the reactor to the primary-secondary exchangers, the operating pressure is around 40 bar, it is set in motion by blowers; the exchanger/boiler systems are located inside the vessel.

The reactor is equipped with 8 blowers driven by induction motors powered by a variable-frequency system, enabling low-speed operation when the reactor is shut down (see table 4 ). The blowers are inserted horizontally into the casing and form part of the containment provided by the casing. This position enables the blowers to be operated without shutting down the reactor, and avoids pollution in the...