Design options for a liquid metal reactor coupled with an AMTEC unit

Author

Rubiolo, Pablo R.

Author_Institution

Westinghouse Electr. Co., Pittsburgh, PA, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

29-31 July 2004

Firstpage

400

Lastpage

405

Abstract

An analysis of design options for a liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactor (LMR) coupled with an alkali metal thermal-to-electric converter (AMTEC) is presented. In order to select the optimal design solution, the following concepts were analyzed: direct coupling with expanders, indirect coupling with expanders, and indirect coupling with boilers. The paper discusses the advantages, drawbacks and main plant characteristics of these designs. The results show that the indirect coupling with alkali metal boilers in a pool configuration is the most promising option. When sodium and potassium are employed as primary and secondary working fluids, this design could achieve a net efficiency of about 28.3% at an average core outlet temperature of 1050 K and using the near term AMTEC technology.

Keywords

fission reactor cooling; fission reactor fuel; liquid metals; nuclear reactor steam generators; potassium; sodium; thermoelectric conversion; AMTEC unit; alkali metal boilers; alkali metal thermoelectric convertor; expanders; liquid metal-cooled nuclear reactor; optimal design; potassium; sodium; working fluids; Boilers; Coupling circuits; Inductors; Land mobile radio; Power generation; Power supplies; Power systems; Safety; Temperature; Turbines;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2002. IECEC '02. 2002 37th Intersociety

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7296-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.2002.1392061

Filename

1392061