Effect of helium xenon as working fluid on the compressor of power conversion unit of closed Brayton cycle HTGR power plant

Abstract Helium is one of the best coolants in closed Brayton cycle power plants as it has superior transport properties; however, the main shortcoming is its compression, which is very difficult to achieve. It leads to a higher number of compressor stages, means bigger mass and big size of the compressor, which create dynamic issues in a compressor of the power conversion unit. All the helium compressors ever constructed have a very high number of stages such as Oberhausen II type 50 MW and JAEA 300 MW, high and low pressure compressors have 25 and 35 stages respectively. In this paper thermodynamic traits of mixing helium with an inert gas xenon were presented. Helium xenon mixture up to the molecular weight of