Water cooled nuclear reactors

Abstract From the Canadian patent

In order to reduce any loss of primary water coolant from around a reactor core (16) of a water cooled nuclear reactor (10) caused by any failure of a pressure vessel (12), an inner vessel (14) is positioned within and spaced from the pressure vessel (12). The reactor core (16) and main portion of the primary water coolant circuit (22, 21, 24) and a heat exchanger (26) are positioned within the inner vessel (14) to maintain some primary water coolant around the reactor core (16) and to allow residual decay heat to be removed from the reactor core (16) by the heat exchanger (26). In a second embodiment (Figure 2) an aperture (15) at the upper region of the inner vessel (14) is dimensioned …