GENES4/ANP2003, Sep.

15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN

Paper 1057

Acacia: A Small Scale Power Plant With Pebble Bed Cartridge Reactor And
Indirect Brayton Cycle
D.F. da Cruz, J.B.M. de Haas, A.I. van Heek1 and M.M. Stempniewicz
NRG
P.O. Box 25, NL-1755 ZG Petten, The Netherlands

For markets other than large-scale electricity production a 60 MWth, 23 MWe (max.) nuclear plant
design with an indirect Brayton cycle is proposed for application on the short to medium term. The reactor
will be cooled by helium, whereas for the secondary cycle nitrogen is proposed as a heat carrier. In this
way, a conventional air based gas turbine can be applied, while at the same time excluding the scenario of
air ingress in the reactor core through a heat exchanger leak. Two variations of cycle design will be
discussed: co-generation and maximized electricity production. The cogeneration mode will be elaborated
for the application of seawater desalination.
The reactor core geometry is annular with a central graphite reflector region, creating an optimal
location for burnable poison. Optimization calculations on burnable poison distribution show that burnup
of fuel and poison are balancing each other into a fairly constant reactivity behaviour during the entire core
lifetime. Also, the two most important safety transient scenarios for pebble bed reactors, Pressurised and
Depressurised Loss Of Forced Cooling, will be discussed. It will be shown that the maximum fuel
temperatures will stay below the level where fuel damage starts for any point in time.

KEYWORDS: pebble bed, HTR, cartridge, small-scale, co-generation, burnable poison

I. Introduction scale nuclear plants. By designing the reactor in such a way

Until now, nuclear power has been successful in the
market of large-scale electricity generation. Other markets,
like heat and power cogeneration or distributed electricity
generation are still waiting to be penetrated by the uranium
based energy source.
For these applications, the power level required per
location will be much smaller than for the existing nuclear
plants. However, traditionally nuclear plants need economy
of scale to become economic power plants. Therefore small
nuclear plants must use other mechanisms to be able to
compete in a market. One way is modularization: multiple
identical units are built on one site instead of one large unit.
This brings several advantages. Capital cost per unit (and
therefore financial risk) is lower and therefore decisions to
build further units are less fraught with risk and
complication. Series production of the components will
bring down costs as well. Maintenance outages can be
spread over the year and will not fully interrupt power
production on the site. However, if the power demand on the
site is small, you will need only one small power plant there.
In that case series production is still possible through
application of identical units on many different sites, but
economic power production should not be fully dependent
on this. Also the first few plants should be attractive to apply
in market circumstances. Therefore the plant should be
simplified to a large extent with regard to traditional large-
1
Corresponding author: tel. ++31 224 56 4507; fax. ++31 224 56 8490; vanheek@nrg-nl.com
that certain components become superfluous, the economic
cost can therefore be reduced. The small power level offers
opportunities for this.
First, the pebble bed high-temperature reactor technology
has been selected for its inherent safety features. A design
without emergency core cooling and shutdown systems is
possible. Secondly, the on-line fuelling and defuelling
system characteristic to existing pebble bed high temperature
reactors is omitted and the core remains unchanged for three
years, after which it is replaced as a whole, like a power
cartridge. The GHR-10 heating reactor design published in
1988 had a similar core design philosophy1).
Many advanced nuclear power plants designs with long-
life cores already exist for application on the long term,
requiring a large development effort on fuel and plant
technology. For the short to medium term however, existing
technology must form the basis and additional development
can only be limited. For energy conversion for instance, a
Brayton cycle is often proposed to couple with a pebble bed
high temperature reactor to increase thermal efficiency and
therefore to reduce energy cost. To avoid the necessity of a
helium turbine, a component still under development and
therefore carrying a high technical risk, an indirect cycle
with nitrogen as secondary medium was selected. In this way
a commercially available expander turbine can be applied,
while at the same time eliminating the possibility of air

1

ingress in a hot pebble bed core in the scenario of a heat
exchanger leak.
A similar philosophy is followed with regard to the fuel: a
requirement on the small-scale nuclear plant is the use of
existing fuel manufacturing technology, in order to avoid
extra costs associated with new development and licensing,
and to the creation of a separate production line. The idea is
to use the pebble fuel composition as proposed for the
PBMR (Pebble Bed Modular Reactor) plant, with 8.1%
enrichment and 9 g of heavy metal per fuel element2).
The considerations above resulted in the design of the
ACACIA (AdvanCed Atomic Cogenerator for Industrial
Applications) concept, a 60 MWth, 23 MWe (max.) nuclear
plant design with indirect Brayton cycle3-5).
The next section will describe the plant design for two
options: a co-generation plant and an electricity generating
plant. A model for desalination as heat application of the co-
generation plant will be discussed as well.
After this, the core design will be discussed. Burnable
poison will be used to obtain a flat reactivity curve during
the entire core lifetime. Also, core power distribution is
improved and power peaking is reduced. The remaining
excess reactivity should be limited to values that can be
compensated with a total control rod worth comparable to
values used in the HTR-Module design (~ 5%) 6). In this
way, the use of active control elements is reduced and the
accident scenario of control rod ejection will have limited
consequences.
The last section is about the effect of the temperature
distribution within the core and the reflector. Also, two
transient scenarios are discussed: the Loss Of Coolant
Incident (LOCI) and the Loss Of Flow Incident (LOFI), also
called in other literature Depressurized Loss Of Forced
Cooling resp. Pressurized Loss of Forced Cooling.
II. Plant Design
A 60 MWt helium cooled pebble bed reactor is coupled
with a secondary nitrogen cycle through a He/N2 heat
exchanger. Two applications are analysed7): one for
cogeneration of electricity and process steam, and one for
electricity generation only. In the last case this is done by a
combined cycle of a gas turbine and a steam turbine. Table 1
highlights the main features of the plant, and in Fig. 1 the
component arrangement is depicted for the cogeneration
plant. The reactor and energy conversion components are
placed into four modules, one nuclear and three non-nuclear
modules. The reactor pack houses the reactor, the He/N2 heat
exchanger (nitrogen heater) and the helium blower. The hot
nitrogen is transferred to the gas turbine pack, where it
drives the gas turbine. The turbine also drives the two
compressors of the intercooled cycle, and a generator
delivering 18.8 MWe. After leaving the turbine, the gas, now
cooled down to 516oC (789K), flows to the adjacent heat
cogeneration unit. Here it is directed through four heat
exchangers in a row: the heat recovery steam generator, the
2
GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057
recuperator, the feedwater heater and the precooler. By now,
the gas has been cooled down to 28oC (301K), and is sent
back to the gas turbine pack for intercooled compression.
Before being sent back to the nitrogen heater it is preheated
in the recuperator to 299oC (572K). Fig. 3 and 4 give the
temperature, pressure and gas flow on the main locations of
the energy conversion system and the reactor. For the
combined cycle electric plant, the hot steam leaving the heat
recovery steam generator is expanded in an additional steam
turbine coupled with a second generator, giving an
additional 5.2 MWe. System calculations have been carried
out with the simulation code GTSim, and a validation has
been carried out using the thermal hydraulics code
SPECTRA8).
In the SPECTRA code, also a model for a multi-stage
flash desalination system (MSF)9) has been made10). Fig. 2
shows a schematic diagram of the MSF system. The system
consists of a main heat exchanger and three stages, each
operating at different pressures and temperatures. In the heat
exchanger steam is condensed in order to provide energy
needed for the process. In each stage sea water is evaporated
and then condensed on the tubes of a stage condenser. The
energy gained from condensation is used to pre-heat the sea
water before it enters the main heat exchanger.
The ACACIA steam supply system provides superheated
steam at about 4.0 MPa, 690K and a mass flow of about
7.7kg/s. The salt water inlet flow is about 50 kg/s. This water
is pressurized to about 4.2MPa and then heated up to about
524K in the heat exchangers. The hot water enters stage 1,
where pressure is equal to 8.8 bar. At this pressure water is
superheated and flashing occurs. Evaporated water (about
9.5 kg/s) flows up to the heat exchanger compartment where
it is condensed and collected at the bottom. From here it
flows to stage 2. The water that did not evaporate in Stage 1
flows to the evaporation sections of Stage 2 through the level
control valve. Pressure in Stage 2 is 2.2 bar, so further
flashing occurs. Evaporation in Stage 2 is about 4.3 kg/s.
Finally the process continues in Stage 3, where pressure is
already close to atmospheric. The amount of fresh water
obtained from the system is about 15.5 kg/s, that is about
1340t/day. About 35.3 kg/s of waste brine, with salinity of
about 7.3 wt%, is discharged from Stage 3.
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

Table 1 Main features of ACACIA indirect cycle plant, in cogeneration mode and in electricity-only mode.
Baseline Combined cycle
cogeneration
Reactor power (MWt) 60
Core inlet/outlet temperatures (oC) ((K)) 352/900 (625/1173)
Helium inlet pressure (MPa) 4.1
Helium mass flow (kg/s) 21
Net electrical power output (MWe) 18.1 23.2
Gas turbine output (MWe) 18.8 18.8
Steam turbine output (MWe) - 5.2
Process steam production (tons/h, 425oC/ 4.14 MPa) 27.8 -
Net power generation efficiency (% max.) 30.1 38.7
Net total thermal efficiency (%) 70.0 38.7

process steam

IC
HEAT COGENERATION UNIT

POWER PACK GAS TURBINE PACK cooling water

LPC HPC GT REC

GAU RG
G
HRSG FW PC

CONVENTIONAL
EL. 0.0 m REACTOR MODULE (HTR)
LEGEND
NUCLEAR GRADE

FW FEEDWATER HEATER
REACTOR G ELECTRIC GENERATOR
GAU GENERATOR AUXILIARY
NH
GT GAS TURBINE
HC HELIUM CIRCULATOR
352oC HPC HIGH PRESSURE COMPRESSOR
HRSG HEAT RECOVERY STEAM GENERATOR
HTR HIGH TEMPERATURE REACTOR
IC INTERCOOLER
NC NITROGEN HEATER
LPC LOW PRESSURE COMPRESSOR
PC PRECOOLER
REC RECUPERATOR
900oC RG REDUCTION GEAR
HC
PRIMARY HELIUM GAS FLOWPATH
SECONDARY N2 GAS FLOW PATH
WATER/STEAM FLOWPATH

Fig.1 ACACIA cycle design for cogeneration of electrical power and process steam

Fig.2 Schematic diagram of a multi-stage flash (MSF) desalination system

3
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

425.0 o C
120.0 o C 4.14 MPa
119.7 o C 28.0 o C 515.8 o C 4.50 MPa 27.8 t/h
2.08 MPa 2.07 MPa 0.95 MPa 27.8 t/h
97.5 kg/s 97.5 kg/s 97.5 kg/s
process steam

40.0 o C
IC
HEAT COGENERATOR UNIT 0.4 MPa
262.4 t/h
POWER PACK GAS TURBINE PACK
cooling water

LPC HPC GT REC

GAU RG 18.0 oC
G 0.5 MPa
HRSG FW PC
290.2 t/h

18.8 MWe

108.0 o C 316.0 o C 126.5 o C

28.0 o C 4.30 MPa 0.94 MPa 0.91MPa
0.90 MPa 96.5 kg/s 97.5 kg/s 97.5 kg/s
97.5 kg/s

reactor

Fig.3 ACACIA co-generation cycle main parameters for the energy conversion system

The core outlet temperature is set to 900oC (1173K), The present design study has identified little or no
which is below what has been or will be demonstrated by the R&D requirements for the energy conversion system of
fuels in AVR (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchs Reaktor), the ACACIA indirect cycle plant and that all major
HTR-10, HTTR (High Temperature Test Reactor), etc. No equipment can be obtained based on available
safety hazard of water or steam ingress into primary system experience or from off-the-shelf products.
exists, since all water and steam circulation is remotely
located in the third loop. The nitrogen heater is essentially 299.4 oC
pressure balanced with a slightly higher secondary pressure REACTOR MODULE (HTR) 4.27 MPa
96.5 kg/s
to ensure that no fission products will enter the secondary
system in case of leaking tubes. The reactor vessel will be
kept below 370oC (643K), so normal SA533 steel can be 351.5 o C REACTOR
4.06 MPa
used. The nitrogen heater can be designed as compact as an IHX

HTR steam generator, by selecting a large temperature

difference of 50oC (50K) between the primary and secondary 850.0 oC
inlet and outlet fluids, an optimal pressure balance inside and 4.16 MPa
96.5 kg/s
outside of the tubes and a minimal tube wall thickness. 60MWt
Whereas for direct cycle systems a helium turbine needs
to be developed and commercialised, a simplification goal in
this study is adaptation to conventional or existing
HC
components and systems so that the available experience 900.0 oC
4.01 MPa
becomes sufficient to minimise any significant R&D
requirements and deployment risks.
The past and current system and component technologies
that support the present N2 closed cycle are identified below: 479 kW
21.07 kg/s
- A number of past closed cycle air gas turbine
generators were built for up to 30 MWe in Europe, the
U.S. and Japan; Some of the plants were operated for Fig. 4 ACACIA reactor main thermal hydraulic
100,000 -150,000 hrs. parameters
- More modern gas turbine technologies developed in
conventional gas turbines such as dry gas shaft seal, high
temperature blade materials, aerodynamic and rotor
dynamic modelling will greatly improve the closed cycle III. General Core Characteristics
experience of the past. In Fig. 5 a schematic drawing of the ACACIA model
- Conventional gas-to-water coolers and heat in (r,z) geometry can be seen, implemented in the code
recovery steam generator. systems PANTHERMIX and WIMS. PANTHERMIX11)
- Conventional or retrofitted steam turbine and is a package that consists of the pebble-bed thermal-
auxiliaries. hydraulic code THERMIX-DIREKT with the neutronics

4
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

code PANTHER. The nuclear data used in PANTHERMIX Table 2 General parameters used for the ACACIA
have been generated using the lattice code WIMS in core model
combination with a cross section library based on JEF2.2.
The model implemented in WIMS utilises the module Fuel enrichment 8.1 %
SNAP, a 3D multi-group diffusion code. The core has an Heavy metal per 9g
annular shape within a solid graphite central column. The fuel element
outer core radius is 1.45 m, inner core radius is 0.65 m and Number of fuel 213500
the height is 7.5 m. Between the pebble bed and the top elements
reflector is a 0.5 m void. The pebble bed is surrounded by a Packing fraction 0.61
graphite outer reflector of 1.0 m thickness and an effective Average discharge 39
top and bottom reflector of 2.0 m. The outer 35 cm layer of burnup MWd/kgHM
the inner reflector contains boron carbide as a burnable (*)

poison. As shown in fig. 5, this region has been subdivided Average power 1.4 MW/m3
in three radial and three axial layers, where different poison density
concentrations can be chosen. Cartridge lifetime 3 years
Control rods have been modelled in the first layer of the Core outer radius 1.45 m
outer reflector. A more elaborate description of the core Core height 7.5 m
modelling can be found in Da Cruz, De Haas and Van Inner reflector 0.65 m
Heek5). radius
Table 2 summarises the main parameters used in the Thickness of 0.34 m (inner
ACACIA models. borated reflector layer reflector)
(*) HM – heavy metal

It can be seen that the discharge burnup is rather low

for a pebble bed high temperature reactor. This is a
1200 consequence of the simple refuelling philosophy without
Cold Gas any fuel shuffling. Any measure to increase the burnup
1100 by fuel shuffling like in other reactors will increase
refuelling complexity.
1000 Gas Plenum
IV. Steady State Behaviour
I O A characteristic feature of ACACIA is the use of
900 n u
burnable poison in the form of boron carbide (B4C) to
n t
e e G limit core excess reactivity. Earlier studies have shown
800 r r a that an annular geometry is preferred to a cylindrical
s
one, and that the best location for the burnable poison is
700
R R the central reflector3-5).
height [cm]

e D
e
f u
f
l Core c 1.3
600 l
t 1 ppm
e e 50 ppm
c c s
1.2 100 ppm
500 t t 150 ppm
k-effective

o o 200 ppm
r r 1.1
400
1.0
300
0.9
0 500 1000 1500
200
time t [days]

100
Hot Gas Fig. 6 Reactivity as function of boron concentration
in the inner reflector
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 As shown in Fig. 6 an increasing boron content leads
r [cm] to a flattening of the reactivity curve, until there is so
much boron that the reactivity increase due to the boron
depletion cannot keep pace with the decrease by the fuel
depletion.
Fig. 5 Sketch of the ACACIA cartridge model

5
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

middle zone. In these figures, obtained from

1.1 PANTHERMIX, only the core region is displayed
100 ppm
160 ppm
exclusively (with radial intervals 65-145 cm). At the
200 ppm beginning of the cycle the power peak is pushed towards
the outer reflector, because of the poisoning of the inner
k-effective

1.0 reflector. Although the burnable poison is distributed

symmetrically, the power density is higher at the upper
part of the core. The reason for this is the lower fuel
temperature there, caused by the cold cooling gas
0.9 entering the core at the top (see fig. 9).
0 500 1000 1500 As the time progresses, the burnable poison depletes
time [days] and the power peak slowly moves across the core
towards the inner reflector. This happens first primarily
in the upper part of the core. Further on in the cycle, as
Fig. 7 Reactivity as function of different boron contents
the burnable poison in the lower and middle zone
in the middle section of the inner reflector. A concentration
becomes depleted, a power peak appears as well at the
of 100 ppm boron has been used in the outer sections.
lower part of the core. At the end of cycle the power
peak is fully pressed towards the inner reflector and
becomes more regularly distributed, with a slight
For a boron concentration of about 100 ppm the reactivity
asymmetry.
curve is almost flat until about 1000 full power days.
From Fig. 7 it is clear that an axial zoning of burnable
Although the case with boron concentration of 150 ppm
poison in the inner reflector with a concentration of
shows a lower excess reactivity, the period where keff >1 (i.e.
100/200/100 ppm provides the flattest reactivity
the cartridge lifetime) starts to decrease significantly. The
evolution curve with the lowest excess reactivity. These
excess reactivity to be compensated by control rods has been
will be used in the transient analyses described in the
decreased to the aimed 5%. The possibility of axial zoning of
next section. Figures 9a-b show the solid structure and
the burnable poison in the inner reflector has been
the coolant temperature profiles as calculated with
investigated as well, see Fig. 7. The two outer axial zones
PANTHERMIX at the BOL (beginning of life – fresh
were given a concentration of 100 ppm whereas the middle
core with equilibrium concentration). We notice that the
zone was given up to 200 ppm. A further overall lowering of
temperature varies significantly over the core and over
the reactivity curve is observed, for a lifetime period of
the reflector layers.
about three years.
Figure 8 shows the power density profile for four time
steps during the cartridge lifetime, for an initial boron
concentration of 100 ppm in the outer axial (i.e. upper and
lower) zones of the inner reflector, and 200 ppm in the

Fig. 8 Evolution of power density profile for an annular core with initial boron concentration
of 100 ppm (outer axial zones) and 200 ppm (middle zone) in the inner reflector, obtained
with PANTHERMIX 6

V. Core Transient Behaviour
Two transient scenarios have been analysed: the loss
of coolant incident and the loss of flow incident. Loss of
Coolant is associated with a large primary helium leak,
whereas Loss of Flow means a failed circulator. In both
cases it is assumed that control rod insertion fails as
well. For both scenarios a number of parameters have
been calculated as a function of time after the start of
the incident (fig. 10 and 11): core reactivity, maximum
fuel temperature, xenon concentration and reactor
power; the latter subdivided in decay power and fission
power. In both cases we can see a natural reactor
shutdown by the negative temperature coefficient.
Xenon is building up for the first seven hours after the
incident, the core temperature drops quickly. As long as
the negative xenon effect is dominant over the positive
temperature effect, the reactor stays subcritical. But at a
certain point in time the negative xenon effect will be
Fig. 9 Temperature distribution at the beginning of the refuelling cycle (BOL): (a). Solid
structure (fuel and reflector) temperature distribution; (b). Coolant temperature distribution.
7
GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057
cancelled by the positive temperature effect, and
criticality occurs. In a depressurized core, this point in
time is later than in the pressurized core because of the
difference in heat conductivity: 12 hours versus 5 hours
after incident start. The maximum fuel temperature
increases again after criticality, to slightly below
1900K. This maximum temperature is reached only
after 80 hours (3.3 days), and only for a very small
volume percentage of the core during a short period of
time. Therefore it can be stated safely that no fuel
degradation takes place. The transient analyses have
been done for a fresh core with equilibrium xenon
concentration (BOL). Later points in time during the
cartridge cycle have been investigated as well, and they
all give lower maximum fuel temperatures.
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

0.003
reactivity

-0.003

-0.006
2000 0 20 40 60 80 1.6
maximum fuel temperature [K]

1800

Xe concentration [a.u.]
1.2

1600
0.8
1400

0.4
1200

1000 0
3 0 20 40 60 80
Power [MW]

Total
1

Decay

0
0 20 40 60 80
time [h]

Fig. 10 Reactivity, maximum fuel temperature, xenon concentration and thermal power of the
reactor (BOL) after a loss of coolant incident with full depressurization and without scram

8
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

0.003

reactivity
0

-0.003

-0.006
2000 0 20 40 60 80 1.6
maximum fuel temperature [K]

1800

Xe concentration [a.u.]
1.2

1600
0.8
1400

0.4
1200

1000 0
3 0 20 40 60 80
Power [MW]

2
Total

Decay

0
0 20 40 60 80
time [h]

Fig. 11 Reactivity, maximum fuel temperature, xenon concentration and thermal power of the
reactor (BOL) after a loss of flow incident without scram

VI. Conclusion
A pebble bed HTR plant for small scale markets with an
indirect Brayton cycle and cartridge core has been designed.
As the secondary medium is nitrogen, all energy conversion
system components are conventional and available as off-
the-shelf components, so R&D requirements and
deployment risks are minimised. Two types of plant were
designed for a 60MWth pebble bed reactor: a cogeneration
version with 18 MWe electric output and 28 ton/h of process
steam, and a combined cycle 23MWe electricity-only
version. For the cogeneration plant a multi-stage flash
(MSF) desalination plant has been designed, producing
about 1340 tons of fresh water per day.
A study for the design of a pebble bed core of the
cartridge type has been performed. By locating burnable
poison in the form of boron carbide in the inner reflector
(central graphite column) a core lifetime of over three years
can be achieved, while at the same time limiting excess
reactivity to a maximum of 5%. Also shown is that an
axially-dependent distribution of burnable poison in the
inner reflector can be used for fine-tuning the reactivity
curve. A further overall decrease in reactivity can be
achieved with an increasing boron concentration in the
middle axial zone of the inner reflector.
Analysis of the power distribution throughout the core
lifetime shows a shift of the region with maximum power
density from the outer reflector via the upper part of the core
to the inner reflector and then downwards until the
maximum power region is pressed towards the inner
reflector.

9
 GENES4/ANP2003, Sep. 15-19, 2003, Kyoto, JAPAN
Paper 1057

Temperature and burnup distributions have been analysed

as well, showing strong gradients over the core. Two
transient scenarios have been analysed: the Loss Of Coolant
Incident and the Loss Of Flow Incident, both with failed
control rod insertion. After a few hours recriticality occurs,
and after about 80 hours the maximum fuel temperature
stabilizes at about 1900K, causing virtually no fuel damage.

References
1) H. Sommers and B. Ribbat, “GHR 10 MW: The
Technical Concept of the Gas Cooled Heating Reactor”,
Nuclear Engineering and Design, 109, pp. 123-128
(1988)
2) D.R. Nicholls, “Status of the pebble bed modular
reactor”, Nuclear Energy, Vol. 39, No.4, August 2000,
p.231-236.
3) D.F. da Cruz, J.B.M. de Haas, and A.I. van Heek,
“ACACIA-Indirect: A Small Scale Nuclear Power Plant
for New Markets”, 1st International Topical Meeting on
High Temperature Reactor Technology, Petten, The
Netherlands, April 22-24, pp. 185-189 (2002).
4) D.F. da Cruz, J.B.M. de Haas, and A.I. van Heek, “Core
design of a cartridge type pebble bed reactor”,
PHYSOR2002, International Conference on the New
Frontiers of Nuclear Technology: Reactor Physics,
Safety and High-Performance Computing, ANS, Seoul,
(2002).
5) D.F. da Cruz, J.B.M. de Haas, and A.I. van Heek,
“ACACIA: A Small Scale Power Plant With Pebble Bed
Cartridge Reactor”, 2003 International Conference on
Advances in Nuclear Power Plants ICAPP’03, Cordoba,
Spain, May 4-7,2003.
6) Siemens, Extract of a proposal for a HTR-Module
power plant to be assessed in the IAEA Feasibility study
Egypt, Bergisch Gladbach, 1992.
7) Longmark Power International Inc., HTRicc, Indirect
Cycle Cogeneration, Contract of NRG, 2001.
8) M.M. Stempniewicz, Validation of the HTRicc with
SPECTRA, NRG, 20926/02.52272, to be published.
9) IAEA, Introduction of Nuclear Desalination, A
Guidebook, Technical Reports Series no. 400, Vienna,
2000.
10) M.M. Stempniewicz, MSF Desalination process with
SPECTRA Version 2.00, NRG, 20926/02.52275, to be
published.
11) J.C. Kuijper, J.B.M. de Haas and J. Oppe, “HTR Core
Physics Analysis At NRG”, 1st International Topical
Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology,
Petten, The Netherlands, April 22-24, 2002.

10