Concepts of nuclear reactors cooled with water at supercritical pressures were studied as early as the 1950s and 1960s in the USA and Russia. After a 30-year break, the idea of developing nuclear reactors cooled with supercritical water (SCW) became attractive again as the ultimate development path for water-cooling. The main objectives of using SCW in nuclear reactors are 1) to increase the thermal efficiency of modern nuclear power plants (NPPs) from 33–35% to about 40–45%, and 2) to decrease capital and operational costs and hence decrease electrical energy costs (∼$1000 US/kW). SCW NPPs will have much higher operating parameters compared to modern NPPs (pressure about 25 MPa and outlet temperature up to 625 °C), and a simplified flow circuit, in which steam generators, steam dryers, steam separators, etc., can be eliminated. Also, higher SCW temperatures allow direct thermo-chemical production of hydrogen at low cost, due to increased reaction rates. Pressure-channel SCW nuclear reactor concepts are being developed in Canada and Russia. Design features related to both channels and fuel bundles are discussed in this paper. Also, Russian experience with operating supercritical steam heaters at NPP is presented. The main conclusion is that development of SCW pressure-channel nuclear reactors is feasible and significant benefits can be expected over other thermal energy systems.
The concept of a direct-flow channel reactor with supercritical-pressure water (CR-SCP) is presented. Neutron-physics, thermohydraulic, and strength calculations are used to substantiate the fundamental core design with a heavy-metal moderator which at supercritical pressure is competitive with other modern reactor designs with respect to fuel-cycle indicators. Two types of fuel-element and fuel-channel structures are examined. It is shown that fuel elements based on micropellets and a metal matrix are highly reliable and have higher operating characteristics (burnup, service life, geometric stability, and so on) than fuel elements with uranium-dioxide fuel. A CR-SCP design and the technological scheme of a power-generating unit are presented, and the systems which are required to ensure normal operation and safety are determined. The main technical-economic indicators of a power-generating unit with installed electric power 850 MW are estimated.The interest in supercritical coolant pressure in reactors is due to the fact the new reactors must be competitive. In the last few years a surge of interest has been observed in Japan, USA, Germany, France, Canada, and other countries [1]. Reactors with supercritical-pressure water are being considered as one direction in the international program for the development of fourth-generation reactors.Some countries are undertaking efforts to develop direct-flow water-moderated water-cooled vessel reactors with supercritical-coolant pressure. The core of these reactors can be designed to operate on thermal and fast neutrons with almost the same thermal layouts of the power-generating units and the same efficiency. It is important to note that a fast-neutron reactor makes it possible, aside from appreciably decreasing the capital costs, to improve fuel utilization [2], since it makes it possible to increase the breeding ratio of nuclear fuel up to 1 and aim at a closed fuel cycle. However, such reactors are characterized by a change in water density by a factor of 10 from the core entrance to the core exit. This is accompanied by a change in the neutron spectrum over the height of the core and makes it difficult to smooth and stabilize the energy-release fields not only
The results of investigations performed by specialists at Research and Design Institute of ElectricalTechnology together with other enterprises, institutes, and organizations concerning the formulation of a strategy for the development of nuclear power in Russia in the first half of the 21st century are presented. The individual stages of the work, key assumptions, ideas, and recommendations, on which the strategy is based, the initiatives which the President of the Russian Federation advanced at the millennium summit held at the United Nations, and the international INPRO project initiated by Russia are examined. It is concluded that innovative development and a transition to building as quickly as possible nuclear power objects that meet the requirements and demands of the new century are necessary.The energy component of nuclear technology began outside the framework of the plans developed for energy construction in the USSR. The first nuclear power plant in the world was built in response to the political problem of competing with the West for leadership in projects selected for this purpose. It did not open up either a technological line for energy construction, since it was not a step in the implementation of a government program. Ten years separated it from the next step -the commissioning of the first power generating units in 1964 at the Novovoronezh and Beloyarskaya nuclear power plants. The first domestic dual-purpose reactor ÉI-2 was built as part of a defense program, and its energy component was no more than an ancillary problem. Both reactors were built at Research and Design Institute of Electrical Technology under the leadership of N. A. Dollezhal. The efforts of I. V. Kurchatov, under whose initiative, by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the first power generating program was adopted back in 1956, turned out to be futile, and all projects were cut back even in 1959.The country returned to planning a nuclear power only in 1966, adopting one program after another, never completing any one of them. However, in the context of the present article it should be noted that all programs were based on an analysis of energy and economic needs. A discussion of the technological problems was the fate of sporadic scientific councils, which sometimes occurred primarily at the I. V. Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy or the Physics and Power Engineering Institute. Public appearances by leaders of the industry did not remain unnoticed by the scientific community. An example is the report by A. P. Aleksandrov at the seventh world energy conference in Moscow [1] or the paper by N. A. Dollezhal and Yu. I. Koryakin in the journal "Kommunist" [2]. The former was the basis for active expansion of geological exploration for uranium, and the latter was the first to raise the question of the desirability of concentrating all ener-
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