Teachin g Notes
Operationa l Reacto r Safet y Course
Lecture : 2 4 – Advance d Reactors
Objective :
Students are always interested in new developments in re actor technology. The purpose of this lectu r e is to summ arize key new react o r s that are being offered on the m a rket and those of the next generation. The lectures should identify how these new designs m e et the challeng es faced by existing designs in term s of i m provem ent in safety and cost.
Ke y Point s t o Brin g Out:
Slid e num be r Point s
2-3 Bring students up to the curre nt situation in term s of changes that have occurred legislativ ely and from the regulatory perspective to encourage the bu ilding of new nuclear plants.
Describe the new regulatory proces s of certification and early site perm its including the new Part 52 combined construction and operating licenses (COL).
4-6 Provide an overview of new plant offerings identifying and identify those designs th at are certified.
7-8 Review current trends in new reacto r designs - m o re pass ive system s with lower core dam age frequencies for the evolutionary Light water reacto r s.
9-12 Review the design features of the Econom i c Safe BWR (ESBWR) focusing on the natural circula tion cooling, elim ination of recirculation pum ps and passive safety system s.
13-19 Review the key features of th e AP1000 which is largely based
on passive safety system s from core and containm ent cooling. The key design changes result in a significant reduction in com ponents, piping, cables, etc.
20-22 The European Pressurized W a ter reactor is the least innovative
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design which features more robus t safety system s and redundancy including a core catcher for the Eu ro pean m arket. In all thes e discussions point out the trend to h i g h er power le vel rea ctor s which hope to capitalize on econom i e s of scale. |
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23-24 |
Slide 23 sho w s the prese n t m argins on electric ity sales that nuclear u t ilities can e arn with thei r nu clear p l ants but challeng es to future expansion exist which s hould be explained - the m ost signif i can t o f which is th e capit al cost of the new plants. |
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25 |
Review for the students the basic elem ents of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership as a concept for the future. It m a y not be Realized as aggress i vely envisioned by DOE. |
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26-33 |
These slides provide a high level re view of current MIT research projects in the area of improved safety, design and econom i c s of future reacto rs. Each can be descri bed briefly. The m e ssage here is that even th ough LW Rs are m ature, there are m a ny opportun ities for im prove m e nt which uni vers ities can research . |
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34 |
Risk inf o rmed licen sing is a new tr en d in regulation which will be useful in licensing non-traditiona l w a ter reactors Explain the notion of technology neutral safety st andards using risk as a m e tric. |
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35-40 |
Review the objective of the "Next G e neration Nuclear Reactor" as a new technology for process heat applications including hydrogen production - em phasis this plant is legislatively m a ndated by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to be built at the Idaho National Laboratory. |
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41-50 |
Provides background infor m ation on the developm ent of pebble reacto r s in S outh Africa, China a nd at MIT. Pebble bed reacto rs are one of two technologies bei ng considered for the NGNP. The other is a more tradition a l prism a tic reacto r originally develo ped by General Atom ics in the 1970s. |
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51-65 |
Review of the novel MIT m odul ar design of the pebble bed reactor using lego style factory m a de modul es for site assem b ly. The big question f o r these sm alle r reac tors is can they co mpete with larger plants and w h at is their m a rket on a world wide scale. The cost of power chart shown was prepared by Exelon when they were involved in the develop m ent of the pebble bed reactor in So uth Af rica. The costs a r e f o r the US m arket which sh ows com p etitive results. |
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66 |
This slid e ex plains why h elium gas reactors h ave certain safety and |
Econom i c advantages over wa ter reactors if developed.
67-68 Possible applications are liste d that go beyond electricity due to the higher operating tem p eratures that are needed for m a ny process heat applications.
69 The last sum m arizes m ajor strate gic directions for new nuclear plants. These are all opportuni ties for young nuclear engineers.
MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu
22.091 / 22.903 Nuclear Reactor Safety
Spring 200 8
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