Executive SummaryThe Multi-Application Small Light Water Reactor (MASLWR) project was conducted under the auspices of the Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (NERI) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The primary project objectives were to develop the conceptual design for a safe and economic small, natural circulation light water reactor, to address the economic and safety attributes of the concept, and to demonstrate the technical feasibility by testing in an integral test facility. This report presents the results of the project.After an initial exploratory and evolutionary process, as documented in the October 2000 report, the project focused on developing a modular reactor design that consists of a self-contained assembly with a reactor vessel, steam generators, and containment. These modular units would be manufactured at a single centralized facility, transported by rail, road, and/or ship, and installed as a series of self-contained units. This approach also allows for staged construction of an NPP and "pull and replace" refueling and maintenance during each five-year refueling cycle.Development of the baseline design concept has been sufficiently completed to determine that it complies with the safety requirements and criteria, and satisfies the major goals already noted. The more significant features of the baseline single-unit design concept include: The economic performance was assessed by designing a power plant with an electric generation capacity in the range of current and advanced evolutionary systems. This approach allows for direct comparison of economic performance and forms a basis for further evaluation, economic and technical, of the proposed design and for the design evolution towards a more cost competitive concept. Applications such as cogeneration, water desalination or district heating were not addressed directly in the economic analyses since these depend more on local conditions, demand and economy and can not be easily generalized. Current economic performance experience and available cost data were used. The preliminary cost estimate, based on a concept that could be deployed in less than a decade, is shown below. Figure 1. The unique features of the concept are:• The reactor core and the steam generator tube bundles are located in a common primary vessel; as a result, there is no piping connecting the steam generator with the reactor.• Buoyancy forces provide the driving head for primary coolant flow and there is no rotating equipment in the primary system.• The primary vessel is located in a steel containment vessel which in turn is submersed in water, thus providing an effective passive ultimate heat sink..• The entire module is removed every 5 years for refueling and maintenance and immediately replaced with a refurbished module. The removed module is moved under water to the adjacent refueling and maintenance facility. A three-dimensional view of a single power generation unit is shown in Figure 2. The unit consists of three basic modules: the reactor module, which includ...
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