A direct-cycle, supercritical light-water-cooled FBR, SCFBR-D

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:7129821

Oka, Yoshiaki; Jevremovic, Tatjana; Koshizuka, Seiichi; Okano, Yasushi ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Tokyo (Japan)

We have been studying supercritical-pressure light-water-cooled reactors (SCLWRS) for improving thermal efficiency, simplifying the light water reactor (LWR) system, and moving toward a low-cost fast breeder reactor (FBR) based on long-standing water coolant technology of a fossil-fired power plants and LWRs. This paper summarizes the conceptual design of a direct-cycle, supercritical-pressure FBR, the SCFBR-D. The fuel is U-Pu mixed oxides (MOX). The cladding material is stainless steel. The maximum surface temperature is limited below 450[degrees]C. It is very low compared with the maximum steam temperature of current fossil-fired power plants (FPPs), 566[degrees]C. Therefore, the cladding is the noncollapsed type and will be free from oxidation-induced corrosion problems. The thermal efficiency is, however, improved by 24% over that of a boiling water reactor (BWR) even under the current limit, 450[degrees]C. The efficiency is comparable with a supercritical FPP because heat is not wasted as exhaust gas in nuclear reactors. The system pressure is 250 bars. Supercritical fluid does not exhibit a change of phase. The water coolant density decreases continuously from the inlet (0.725 g/cm[sup 3]) to the outlet (0.137 g/cm[sup 3]). The coolant is fed directly to turbines. This eliminates the recirculation system, steam separators, and dryers.

• OSTI ID: 7129821
• Report Number(s): CONF-931160--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 69
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500* -- Power Reactors
Breeding
BREEDER REACTORS
COOLING SYSTEMS
DESIGN
DIRECT CYCLE COOLING SYSTEMS
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY SYSTEMS
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FBR TYPE REACTORS
FUELS
MIXED OXIDE FUELS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR COOLING SYSTEMS
REACTORS
SOLID FUELS
SUPERCRITICAL STATE
THERMAL EFFICIENCY
WATER COOLED REACTORS