Cooling elements for passive heat removal

To control design basis and to mitigate severe accidents in future nuclear power plants with light water reactors, it is necessary to remove the heat from the containment by means of passive heat exchangers. Particularly for the severe accident application a new type of heat exchanging element was designed combining several functions. The side facing the atmosphere contains cooling fins, combining the effect of enlarging the heat exchanging surface with the advantage that the ribs can absorb energy from impact loads. The cooling water circulates in press-fitted tubes. To determine the thermal properties, test were performed in four test facilities.