Thermal Design of an Ultrahigh Temperature Vapor Core Reactor Combined Cycle Nuclear Power Plant
- Innovative Space Power and Propulsion Institute, University of Florida, 202 Nuclear Science Building, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States)
Current work modeling high temperature compact heat exchangers may demonstrate the design feasibility of a Vapor Core Reactor (VCR) driven combined cycle power plant. For solid nuclear fuel designs, the cycle efficiency is typically limited by a metallurgical temperature limit which is dictated by fuel and structural melting points. In a vapor core, the gas/vapor phase nuclear fuel is uniformly mixed with the topping cycle working fluid. Heat is generated homogeneously throughout the working fluid thus extending the metallurgical temperature limit. Because of the high temperature, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generation is employed for topping cycle power extraction. MHD rejected heat is transported via compact heat exchanger to a conventional Brayton gas turbine bottoming cycle. High bottoming cycle mass flow rates are required to remove the waste heat because of low heat capacities for the bottoming cycle gas. High mass flow is also necessary to balance the high Uranium Tetrafluoride (UF{sub 4}) mass flow rate in the topping cycle. Heat exchanger design is critical due to the high temperatures and corrosive influence of fluoride compounds and fission products existing in VCR/MHD exhaust. Working fluid compositions for the topping cycle include variations of Uranium Tetrafluoride, Helium and various electrical conductivity seeds for the MHD. Bottoming cycle working fluid compositions include variations of Helium and Xenon. Some thought has been given to include liquid metal vapor in the bottoming cycle for a Cheng or evaporative cooled design enhancement. The NASA Glenn Lewis Research Center code Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA) is utilized for evaluating chemical species existing in the gas stream. Work being conducted demonstrates the compact heat exchanger design, utilization of the CEA code, and assessment of different topping and bottoming working fluid compositions. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- American Nuclear Society, 555 North Kensington Avenue, La Grange Park, IL 60526 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21160587
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ICAPP'04: 2004 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants, Pittsburgh, PA (United States), 13-17 Jun 2004; Other Information: Country of input: France; 14 refs; Related Information: In: Proceedings of the 2004 international congress on advances in nuclear power plants - ICAPP'04, 2338 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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