Cogeneration: An option to facilitate load following in Small Modular Reactors

Locatelli, Giorgio; Fiordaliso, Andrea; Boarin, Sara; Ricotti, Marco Enrico

doi:10.1016/j.pnucene.2016.12.012

Cited by 76 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…SMRs are deliberately designed to be small, to provide the operational possibility of several reactors as modules, which yield some innovative features and specific performance characteristics. Currently, there are many proposed SMR designs at different levels of development and construction, which are detailed in [7,28,29]. Some of the most famous SMRs are classified by their power output in Table 1.…”

Section: Smr For Supplying the Required Energy For Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Hybrid Desalination Technologies Powered by SMR

et al. 2020

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Small modular reactors (SMRs) represent a key area of interest to nuclear industry developers, which have been making significant progress during the past few years. Generally, these reactors are promising owing to their improved safety due to passive systems, enhanced containment efficiency, and fewer capital costs in comparison to traditional nuclear reactors. An important advantage of SMRs is their adaptability in being coupled to other energy-consuming systems, such as desalination plants (DPs) to create a cogeneration plant. Considering the serious challenges regarding the freshwater shortage in many regions of the world and the necessity of using low-carbon energy sources, it is advantageous to use SMR for supplying the required heat and electricity of DPs. As a high-performance desalination technology, the hybrid desalination (HD) systems can be exploited, which retain the advantages of both thermal and membrane desalination methods. In this study, several SMR coupling schemes to HD plants have been suggested. In performing a thermodynamic analysis of integrated SMR-DP, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Desalination Thermodynamic Optimization Program (DE-TOP) has been utilized. It has been found that the use of relatively hot water from the SMR condenser leads to about 6.5 to 7.5% of total desalination cost reduction, where the produced electricity and hot steam extracted from low-pressure turbine were used to drive the HD system.

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Section: Smr For Supplying the Required Energy For Desalinationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Analysis of Hybrid Desalination Technologies Powered by SMR

et al. 2020

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“…Future reactor design becomes standardised on the best-performing current technologies, whether of the so-called Generation III+ or the not-yet-commercialised Generation IV, allowing a reduction in costs and subsidies. Global political instability encourages intensive nuclear technology development, both internationally and in the UK, as an apparently secure option, and SMRs could emerge (Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), 2017a; Locatelli et al, 2017) as a more flexible option for part of the 40 GW capacity, though the feasibility of commercial SMRs is yet to be established. Global instability also reinforces the idea that a strong civil nuclear industry as helpful in maintaining the UK's capacity to possess credible nuclear weapons (Johnstone and Stirling, 2015).…”

Section: The 'New Nuclear' Pathwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Low-Carbon Transitions

Hanger¹,

Lieu²,

Νίκας³

2019

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This book examines the uncertainties underlying various strategies for a lowcarbon future. Most prominently, such strategies relate to transitions in the energy sector, on both the supply and the demand side. At the same time they interact with other sectors, such as industrial production, transport, and building, and ultimately require new behaviour patterns at household and individual levels. Currently, much research is available on the effectiveness of these strategies but, in order to successfully implement comprehensive transition pathways, it is crucial not only to understand the benefits but also the risks. Filling this gap, this volume provides an interdisciplinary, conceptual framework to assess risks and uncertainties associated with low-carbon policies and applies this consistently across 11 country cases from around the world, illustrating alternative transition pathways in various contexts. The cases are presented as narratives, drawing on stakeholder-driven research efforts. They showcase diverse empirical evidence reflecting the complex challenges to and potential negative consequences of such pathways. Together, they enable the reader to draw valuable lessons on the risks and uncertainties associated with choosing the envisaged transition pathways, as well as ways to manage the implementation of these pathways and ultimately enable sustainable and lasting social and environmental effects. This book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners of environmental and energy policy, low-carbon transitions, renewable energy technologies, climate change action, and sustainability in general.

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“…These small reactors are believed to fill a gap in the energy market as they may be constructed in a short time, can work on less developed energy grids and do not require the considerable upfront capital costs associated with currently operated large NPPs (nuclear power plants) that make purchasing them economically challenging for most countries [103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110][111][112][113][114][115][116]. Small modular reactors caused a similar euphoria in the 1960s and again in the 1980s that did not materialize due to the smaller reactors overall less favorable economic performance when compared to large (>1000 MWe) nuclear power plants (NPPs) [117,118] or other energy generating technology.…”

Section: Identified Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Sustainability and Progress of Energy Neutral Mineral Processing

et al. 2018

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A number of primary ores such as phosphate rock, gold-, copper-and rare earth ores contain considerable amounts of accompanying uranium and other critical materials. Energy neutral mineral processing is the extraction of unconventional uranium during primary ore processing to use it, after enrichment and fuel production, to generate greenhouse gas lean energy in a nuclear reactor. Energy neutrality is reached if the energy produced from the extracted uranium is equal to or larger than the energy required for primary ore processing, uranium extraction, -conversion, -enrichment and -fuel production. This work discusses the sustainability of energy neutral mineral processing and provides an overview of the current progress of a multinational research project on that topic conducted under the umbrella of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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Cogeneration: An option to facilitate load following in Small Modular Reactors

Cited by 76 publications

References 45 publications

Comparative Analysis of Hybrid Desalination Technologies Powered by SMR

Comparative Analysis of Hybrid Desalination Technologies Powered by SMR

Narratives of Low-Carbon Transitions

On the Sustainability and Progress of Energy Neutral Mineral Processing

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