Sodium-CO2 Interaction in a Supercritical CO2 Power Conversion System Coupled with a Sodium Fast Reactor

A conceptual design of a low power liquid metal fast reactor with Alkali-metal thermal-to-electric conversion (AMTEC) units is presented. The small modular reactor (SMR) can operate in remote locations as a distributed energy system. This paper provides the layout of the main components of the plant and main design parameters. The reactor core power of 2MW (t) may be completely removed by natural circulation, thus there is no need for primary pumps. Passive heat removal system (PHRS) is adopted to remove the decay heat. In addition, it could also be activated when part of the energy conversion units are disabled. AMTEC unit is a good candidate for converting the reactor power to electricity. An expanded AMTEC tube bundle system and the layout of power conversion system are both presented. The converters are coupled to the primary loop through six independent secondary loops. Liquid-liquid intermediate heat exchangers (IHXs) would be used to connect the primary loop and secondary loops as well as power conversion system and secondary loops. The design objectives for SMR-AMTEC system are to provide a greatly simplified power system with respect to design, construction, operation and maintenance.

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Computational analysis of supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle power conversion system for fusion reactor

Energy Conversion and Management ◽

10.1016/j.enconman.2012.01.028 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 63 ◽

pp. 38-43 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

Burhanuddin Halimi ◽

Kune Y. Suh

Keyword(s):

Supercritical Co2 ◽

Computational Analysis ◽

Fusion Reactor ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Brayton Cycle ◽

Conversion System

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Optimization of Supercritical CO2 Power Conversion System With an Integrated Energy Storage for the Pulsed DEMO

IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science ◽

10.1109/tps.2020.2971718 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (6) ◽

pp. 1715-1720

Author(s):

Ladislav Vesely ◽

Jan Syblik ◽

Slavomir Entler ◽

Jan Stepanek ◽

Pavel Zacha ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Storage ◽

Supercritical Co2 ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Conversion System

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Analysis of the secondary circuit of a gas-cooled fast reactor

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/202134500032 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 345 ◽

pp. 00032

Author(s):

Michal Volf ◽

Martin Pelikán ◽

Pavel Žitek

Keyword(s):

Power Plant ◽

Fast Reactor ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

Power Conversion ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Nuclear Fission ◽

Secondary Circuit ◽

Conversion System ◽

Heat Regeneration ◽

Additional Safety

The article focuses on a power conversion system for a gas-cooled fast reactor working with helium. The power conversion system, i.e., secondary and possible tertiary system of a power plant, is used to convert heat generated by nuclear fission into electrical energy. The presented research deals with the conceptual design of this system, mainly its secondary circuit, which is assumed to be a Brayton cycle. Several concepts are evaluated, including single and staged compression and possible heat regeneration. The goal of the work is to select the main parameters of such a cycle that would not only be ideal in terms of efficiency, but would also allow decay heat to be used and further converted into electricity. In this way, the secondary cycle could be used as an additional safety system for the nuclear power plant.

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