Natural circulation

Coolant flow driven by gravity and temperature difference alone: coolant heated in the core becomes less dense and rises, cooler coolant sinks to take its place, and the loop keeps moving with no pump. Many passive cooling systems rely on it, and some reactor designs, such as NuScale's and the BWRX-300, use it to cool the core in normal operation too. How much heat it can carry depends on the height between where heat is made and where it is removed, and on the flow paths staying clear, so a design that relies on it should state how much heat it can remove, not only that it uses it.

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concept:natural-circulation

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