Investigation of Thermal Feedback Design for Improved Load-Following Capability of Thorium Molten Salt Reactors

Author

Dodson, Andrew M. ; McCann, Roy A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Univ. of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

4-5 April 2013

Firstpage

215

Lastpage

219

Abstract

The increasing deployment of renewable energy sources has raised concerns about the ramp-rate limitations of conventional steam and combustion turbines in providing load following during solar photovoltaic transients. As one of the promising Generation IV reactor technologies, thorium molten salt reactors (TMSR) have a number of advantages in terms of their fuel cycle. In addition, recent advancements in reactor thermal hydraulics have increased the thermal feedback potential for TMSR. This paper examines the transient power characteristics of a TMSR with improved reactivity feedback performance by analyzing the neutronics and temperature interactions with reactor power feedback. Detailed simulations are given that include the nonlinear and transport delay effects of TMSR circulating-fuel reactor dynamics.

Keywords

fission reactors; load flow; neutron effects; power system transients; thorium; TMSR circulating fuel reactor dynamics; combustion turbines; conventional steam turbines; load following; neutronics; nonlinear delay effects; ramp rate limitations; reactor thermal hydraulics; renewable energy sources; solar photovoltaic transients; temperature interactions; thermal feedback potential; thorium molten salt reactors; transient power characteristics; transport delay effects; Fuels; Inductors; Kinetic theory; Neutrons; Phase change materials; Transient analysis; Turbines; molten salt reactors; thorium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Green Technologies Conference, 2013 IEEE

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

ISSN

2166-546X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5191-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/GreenTech.2013.40

Filename

6520053