Optimized, Competitive Supercritical-CO2 Cycle GFR for Gen IV Service

M.J. Driscoll ; P. Hejzlar ; G. Apostolakis

关键词: AFTER-HEAT REMOVAL;    BOILERS;    DESIGN;    ELECTROLYSIS;    FAST REACTORS;    FUEL CYCLE;    HYDROGEN PRODUCTION;    NATURAL CONVECTION;    PERFORMANCE;    POWER DENSITY;    WATER;   

DOI  :  10.2172/937204
RP-ID  :  DOE/ID/14671
PID  :  OSTI ID: 937204
Others  :  Other: Project No. 05-044
Others  :  TRN: US0805793

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

An overall plant design was developed for a gas-cooled fast reactor employing a direct supercritical Brayton power conversion system. The most important findings were that (1) the concept could be capital-cost competitive, but startup fuel cycle costs are penalized by the low core power density, specified in large part to satisfy the goal of significatn post-accident passive natural convection cooling; (2) active decay heat removal is preferable as the first line of defense, with passive performance in a backup role; (3) an innovative tube-in-duct fuel assembly, vented to the primpary coolant, appears to be practicable; and (4) use of the S-Co2 GFR to support hydrogen production is a synergistic application, since sufficient energy can be recuperated from the product H2 and 02 to allow the electrolysis cell to run 250 C hotter than the reactor coolant, and the water boilers can be used for reactor decay heat removal. Increasing core poer density is identified as the top priority for future work on GFRs of this type.