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Title: Secondary Heat Exchanger Design and Comparison for Advanced High Temperature Reactor

Conference ·
OSTI ID:1054304

The goals of next generation nuclear reactors, such as the high temperature gas-cooled reactor and advance high temperature reactor (AHTR), are to increase energy efficiency in the production of electricity and provide high temperature heat for industrial processes. The efficient transfer of energy for industrial applications depends on the ability to incorporate effective heat exchangers between the nuclear heat transport system and the industrial process heat transport system. The need for efficiency, compactness, and safety challenge the boundaries of existing heat exchanger technology, giving rise to the following study. Various studies have been performed in attempts to update the secondary heat exchanger that is downstream of the primary heat exchanger, mostly because its performance is strongly tied to the ability to employ more efficient conversion cycles, such as the Rankine super critical and subcritical cycles. This study considers two different types of heat exchangers—helical coiled heat exchanger and printed circuit heat exchanger—as possible options for the AHTR secondary heat exchangers with the following three different options: (1) A single heat exchanger transfers all the heat (3,400 MW(t)) from the intermediate heat transfer loop to the power conversion system or process plants; (2) Two heat exchangers share heat to transfer total heat of 3,400 MW(t) from the intermediate heat transfer loop to the power conversion system or process plants, each exchanger transfers 1,700 MW(t) with a parallel configuration; and (3) Three heat exchangers share heat to transfer total heat of 3,400 MW(t) from the intermediate heat transfer loop to the power conversion system or process plants. Each heat exchanger transfers 1,130 MW(t) with a parallel configuration. A preliminary cost comparison will be provided for all different cases along with challenges and recommendations.

Research Organization:
Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
DOE - NE
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC07-05ID14517
OSTI ID:
1054304
Report Number(s):
INL/CON-12-24536
Resource Relation:
Conference: 2012 International Congress on the Advances in Nuclear Power Plants,Chicago, Illinois,06/24/2012,06/28/2012
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English