Advantages of Gas Cooled & Advanced Gas Cooled

 Advantages of Gas Cooled & Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors Jenkins Jose Shirley 102114026

Advantages of gas cooled reactor (The moderator is graphite. Inert gas, e.g. helium or carbon dioxide, is used as the coolant.) 

CO2 is used as the cooling gas it eliminates the possibility of explosion which is always present in water cooled reactors

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There is no need for cladding the metallic fuel which leads to simple fuel processing techniques as compared to other types of reactors where cladding is necessary

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The coolant can be heated to higher temperatures than water. As a result, higher plant efficiency (40% or more) could be obtained compared to the water cooled design (33-34%).

Disadvantages of gas cooled reactor

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The main drawback of these plants is there low power density which requires large size of the reactor for relatively smaller power requirements

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Although Helium is an excellent cooling medium from the thermodynamic point of view, its low neutron absorbing capacity makes it unsuitable for load control

ADVANTAGES OF ADVANCED GAS COOLED REACTOR ( Reactors use a slightly enriched uranium dioxide clad with stainless steel. Carbon dioxide is the coolant gas used.) 

higher operating temperature with a higher thermal efficiency

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not susceptible to accidents of the type possible with water cooled/moderated reactors.

DISADVANTAGES OF ADVANCED GAS COOLED REACTOR 

the reactor core has to be larger for the same power output, and the fuel burnup ratio at discharge is lower so the fuel is used less efficiently, countering the thermal efficiency advantage.