Design of advanced integral-type marine reactor, MRX

The basic concept of an innovative advanced marine reactor with a passive safety system, MRX (Marine Reactor X) has been established for the primary application to ship propulsion. The design goals of the reactor system, to be lightweight and compact, and to be enhanced in safety and reliability, are achieved with adoption of new technologies. The MRX is of the integral-type PWR with 100 MW of thermal output. Adoption of a water-filled containment makes the MRX extremely lightweight and compact. The total weight and volume of MRX is about 1600 tons and 1210 m(3), which is half that of the first Japanese nuclear ship, 'Mutsu', reactor, although the reactor power of MRX is three times greater than that of the 'Mutsu' reactor. Numbers of active components in the reactor system are greatly reduced, compared with loop type PWRs, by adopting an integral type reactor and the passive system. Safety was evaluated by both experiments and analyses. Core damage occurrence frequency estimated by probability safety analysis (PSA) is of two orders smaller than those of existing PWRs. Feasibility study on economics is conducted by comparing the total operation costs of a nuclear container ship installing the MRXs with a diesel engine ship. The nuclear ship has the advantage for greater speed and larger amounts of cargo carried. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.