Patent Number: 043115586
Section: description

FIGS. 1 and 2 show a generally cylindrically shaped reinforced concrete pressure vessel 1 for a nuclear power plant. The pressure vessel actually houses, for example, a gas cooled high temperature reactor, a gas turbine assembly and a plurality of heat exchanger devices such as recuperators, precoolers and intermediate coolers. These individual components are housed within cavities in the reinforced concrete pressure vessel 1, that is, an integrated mode of construction is employed for the nuclear power plant and pressure vessel. The components are not shown in the drawings as they may be any high temperature reactor, gas turbine assembly, recuperator, precooler, intermediate cooler and the like. Examples of such devices are more completely disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,045,285; 4,118,276 and 4,175,001, the disclosures of which are herein by reference. The design of the cavities housing the individual components of the power plant comprise a cylindrical cavity 2 to house the high temperature reactor, a horizontal tunnel 3 to house the gas turbine assembly and four vertical recesses 4 to house the heat exchanger devices. The vertical recesses 4 are arranged on both sides of the horizontal tunnel 3 and symmetrically to said tunnel. The cavity 2, located over the partial section 5 containing the horizontal tunnel 3, displays an eccentricity e, i.e. it is displaced in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the horizontal tunnel 3 from the center of the reinforced concrete pressure vessel 1. The location of this cavity is generally within one half of the cylindrical reinforced concrete pressure vessel 1. The other half of the pressure vessel contains all four of the vertical recesses 4. From the side view as depicted in FIG. 2, the reinforced concrete pressure vessel 1 is offset in its area underneath the cavity 2 transversely to the longitudinal axis of the horizontal tunnel 3. The remaining section of the pressure vessel coincides with the partial section 5 of the pressure vessel, wherein the horizontal tunnel 3 is located. The horizontal tunnel 3 is located in its entirety within this section of the pressure vessel. The vertical recesses 4 for the heat exchanger apparatus are also extending through the section 5 of the pressure vessel. In a second example of a preferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the reinforced concrete pressure vessel 6 is of a more exact cylindrical configuration than the vessel of FIGS. 1 and 2. The similarly cylindrical cavity 7 which houses the high temperature reactor is here again in an eccentric position, but the eccentricity e is significantly less than in the first example shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The horizontal tunnel 8 for the gas turbine assembly is again located in a lower partial section 9 of the reinforced concrete pressure vessel 6. This horizontal tunnel 8 extends directly underneath and along the cavity 7. The nuclear power plant housed in the reinforced concrete pressure vessel 6 comprises a greater number of heat exchanger devices and therefore six vertical recesses 10 are provided to house the heat exchanger devices. The vertical recesses 10 extend in an arrangement symmetrical with respect to the horizontal tunnel 8 through the entire reinforced concrete pressure vessel. They are also arranged so that they generally surround the cavity 7 for the high temperature reactor. In both of these examples of preferred embodiments, partial sections of the reinforced concrete pressure vessels 1 and 6, respectively, while exposed to different requirements, may be prestressed to different degrees. Such partial sections are, for example, the areas of the pressure vessel which contain the cavities for the components of the nuclear power plant. Depending on the components installed in the various cavities, the housing around such cavities can be reinforced or prestressed under different pressures and according to the requirements of particular design. Varying degrees of eccentricity of the cavity housing the high temperature reactor may be easily selected according to the flexibility of reinforcement requirements for the pressure vessel. The specification and drawings set forth preferred embodiments of the invention. It should be noted, however, that the invention is not limited to those specific embodiments and methods specifically disclosed, but extends instead to all embodiments, substitute and equivalent constructions falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the claims.