The Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project
The Next Generation Nuclear Power (NGNP) Project will demonstrate emissions-free nuclearassisted electricity and hydrogen production by 2015. The NGNP reactor will be a helium-cooled, graphite moderated, thermal neutron spectrum reactor with a design goal outlet temperature of 1000 C or higher. The reactor thermal power and core configuration will be designed to assure passive decay heat removal without fuel damage during hypothetical accidents. The fuel cycle will be a once-through very high burnup low-enriched uranium fuel cycle. This paper provides a description of the project to build the NGNP at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). The NGNP Project includes an overall reactor design activity and four major supporting activities: materials selection and qualification, NRC licensing and regulatory support, fuel development and qualification, and the hydrogen production plant. Each of these activities is discussed in the paper. All the reactor design and construction activities will be managed under the DOE’s project management system as outlined in DOE Order 413.3. The key elements of the overall project management system discussed in this paper include the client and project management organization relationship, critical decisions (CDs), acquisition strategy, and the project logic and timeline. The major activities associated with the materials program include development of a plan for managing the selection and qualification of all component materials required for the NGNP; identification of specific materials alternatives for each system component; evaluation of the needed testing, code work, and analysis required to qualify each identified material; preliminary selection of component materials; irradiation of needed sample materials; physical, mechanical, and chemical testing of unirradiated and irradiated materials; and documentation of final materials selections. The NGNP will be licensed by the NRC under 10 CFR 50 or 10 CFR 52, for the purpose of demonstrating the suitability of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors for commercial electric power and hydrogen production. Products that will support the licensing of the NGNP include the environmental impact statement, the preliminary safety analysis report, the NRC construction permit, the final safety analysis report, and the NRC operating license. The fuel development and qualification program consists of five elements: development of improved fuel manufacturing technologies, fuel and materials irradiations, safety testing and post-irradiation examinations, fuel performance modeling, and fission product transport and source term modeling. Two basic approaches will be explored for using the heat from the high-temperature helium coolant to produce hydrogen. The first technology of interest is the thermochemical splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen. The most promising processes for thermochemical splitting of water are sulfur-based and include the sulfur-iodine, hybrid sulfur-electrolysis, and sulfur-bromine processes. The second technology of interest is thermally assisted electrolysis of water. The efficiency of this process can be substantially improved by heating the water to high-temperature steam before applying electrolysis.
- Research Organization:
- Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE - NE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC07-99ID-13727
- OSTI ID:
- 910779
- Report Number(s):
- INEEL/CON-03-01150; TRN: US0800532
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Global 2003,New Orleans, LA,11/16/2003,11/20/2003
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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