Seismic Study of High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor Core Graphite Structures

The High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor (HTTR) is a 30-MW(thermal) helium gas-cooled reactor with a core composed of prismatic graphite blocks piled on core support structures. Safety analyses have been made for the seismic design of the HTTR core using a two-dimensional seismic analysis code called SONATINA-2V, which was developed by the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. To evaluate the validity of the SONATINA-2V code and confirm the structural integrity of the core graphite blocks, large-scale seismic tests are conducted using a half-scale vertical section model and a full-scale seven-column model of the core graphite blocks and the core support structures. The test results are in good agreement with the analytical ones, and the validity of the analysis code is confirmed. The structural integrity of the core graphite blocks is confirmed by both analytical and test results.