Summary In March 2015, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with South Korea to build the system‐integrated modular advanced reactor (SMART) originally developed by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute. The SMART is a structurally contained safe dual‐purpose power plant reactor that produces both electricity and desalination. This study aims to design a double‐containment structure with a pool‐type concept to enhance the SMART safety and develop a robust design for future modular reactors. For that purpose, a theoretical model is developed herein, which leads to the modeling of a double‐containment structural design of a water pool. The model calculates various parameters (ie, temperature, pressure, phasic velocities, and condensable gases) and is used to develop a simulation program for use in a computational assessment. Moreover, two best‐estimate thermal hydraulic engineering programs, namely THEATRe and RELAP5, are used to simulate the original SMART with the double‐containment water pool structure. The differences in the modeling strategies of the two simulation techniques are discussed to accurately measure various technical parameters. Accordingly, a nodalization diagram of the reactor and the pool‐type concept are developed and simulated. The results obtained from the computational models yield the error of >2%, depicting accuracy. A small‐break loss of coolant accident is also simulated to mitigate the transient conditions. The result verifies the adoptability of this reactor concept in any other small modular reactor.
The economic assessment of advanced nuclear power reactors is very important, specifically during the early stages of concept design. Therefore, a study was performed to calculate the total cost estimation of fuel cycle supply for a system modular advanced reactor (SMART) by using the Generation-IV economic program called G4-ECONS (Generation 4 Excel-based Calculation of Nuclear Systems). In this study, the detailed description of each model and methodology are presented including facility, operations, construction matrix, post-production model, and fuel cycle cost estimation model. Based on these models, six Generation-III+ and Generation-IV nuclear reactors were simulated, namely System 80+ with benchmark data, System 80+ with uranium oxide (UOx) and mixed oxide (MOx) fuel assemblies, fast reactor, PBMR (Pebble Bed Modular Reactor), and PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor), with partially closed and benchmarked cases. The total levelized costs of these reactors were obtained, and it was observed that PBMR showed the lowest cost. The research was extended to work on the SMART reactor to calculate the total levelized fuel cycle cost, capital cost, capital component cost, fraction of capital spent, and sine curve spent pattern. To date, no work is being reported to calculate these parameters for the SMART reactor. It was observed that SMART is the most cost-effective reactor system among other proven and advanced pressurized water-based reactor systems. The main objective of the research is to verify and validate the G4-ECONS model to be used for other innovative nuclear reactors.
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