Coupling of Thermal Energy Storage with Small Modular Reactors

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society

OSTI ID:23042616

Doster, J. Michael; Frick, Konor L. ^[1]

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1. Department of Nuclear Engineering, NCSU Box 7909, Raleigh, NC 27695 (United States)

Thermal energy storage has been proposed as a load management strategy for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) deployed on constrained grids and/or in hybrid energy systems (1). Hybrid energy systems can include process steam applications, and the presence of intermittent energy sources such as wind and solar. Under these conditions, the reactor can be subjected to significant time varying electric loads. One strategy for accommodating these loads is to operate the reactor in a load follow mode where reactor power is modulated to match the electric demand. In addition to lost energy potential, load follow operation can result in additional stresses on the fuel and other mechanical components. A more attractive approach is to operate the reactor at or near steady state and bypass excess steam to a thermal energy storage system. The thermal energy can then be recovered later, either for electric generation during periods of peak electric demand, or for uses in process steam applications. In previous work, the design of a sensible heat Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system was proposed for SMR applications (2). In this paper we examine coupling of the TES system to a SMR, typical of Integral Pressurized Water Reactor (IPWR) designs currently under development. (authors)

• OSTI ID: 23042616
• Journal Information: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society Vol. 115; ISSN 0003-018X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
25 ENERGY STORAGE
ENERGY SOURCES
ENERGY STORAGE
ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS
LOAD MANAGEMENT
PWR TYPE REACTORS
REACTOR DESIGN
REACTOR OPERATION
SMALL MODULAR REACTORS
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS