Design and Operation of an Electric Peaking/Industrial Steam Production Unit for SMRs

Conference · Sun Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2018

OSTI ID:1478374

Bragg-Sitton, Shannon M. ^[1]; Frick, Konor ^[2]; Doster, J. Michael ^[2]

---

1. Idaho National Laboratory
2. North Carolina State University

Various methods of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) can be coupled to nuclear (or renewable) power sources to help absorb grid variability caused by daily load demand changes and renewable intermittency. Our previous research has shown that coupling a sensible heat TES system to a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) allows the reactor to run at effectively nominal full power during periods of variable electric demand by bypassing steam to the TES system during periods of excess capacity. In this paper we demonstrate that this stored thermal energy can be recovered; allowing the TES system to act as a peaking unit during periods of high electric demand, or used to produce steam for ancillary applications such as desalination. For both applications the reactor can operate continuously at approximately 100% power.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1478374
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-18-44285-Rev000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
25 ENERGY STORAGE
hybrid energy systems
nuclear cogeneration
nuclear hybrid energy
small modular reactors
thermal energy storage