Going nuclear for climate mitigation: An analysis of the cost effectiveness of preserving existing U.S. nuclear power plants as a carbon avoidance strategy

Roth, Michael; Jaramillo, Paulina

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.011

Cited by 54 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Without the incentives available to other low carbon electricity generators, and penalties for CO 2 emitters, the nuclear power industry is in a difficult financial position. This is substantiated by the study carried out by Roth and Jaramillo [14], and evidenced by the recent failure of Westinghouse's nuclear operations [15,16] and the critical financial situation of many operating plants [17,18].…”

Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 86%

Radiation enhanced chemical production: Improving the value proposition of nuclear power

Schmeda‐Lopez

McConnaughy

McFarland

2018

Energy

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Nuclear power is one of the means for large-scale CO 2-free heat and electricity generation. Commercial designs, developed decades ago, have not adopted technological innovations and struggle to be cost-competitive with state-of-the-art fossil-fuel power systems. Though fuel is relatively inexpensive, nuclear power plants are expensive to build and produce only low-value electricity. One strategy to improve the process economics is to use unique characteristics of nuclear reactors to provide additional sources of revenue by co-producing higher value products. A conceptual process is analysed, which combines a molten salt nuclear power reactor and a chemical process using the reactor's gamma radiation to facilitate the production of propylene. This facility is able to co-produce electricity and high volume commodity chemicals using, otherwise wasted radiation. The conceptual process model suggests that integration of units producing an energy product with one that produces more valuable chemicals leads to significant economic benefits for the overall facility. Despite the improvements, the system studied is unable to deliver an acceptable return on investment for small power plants independent of the size of the chemical plant integrated. Conversely, large plants are capable of delivering acceptable return on investment, in some cases generating returns comparable to other modern investment options.

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Section: Accepted Manuscriptmentioning

confidence: 86%

Radiation enhanced chemical production: Improving the value proposition of nuclear power

Schmeda‐Lopez

McConnaughy

McFarland

2018

Energy

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“…The birth, life and death of stars, Earth and their occupants, either animate or inanimate are all the products of these processes, evolved from the nucleosynthesis of the lightest elements (hydrogen, helium and lithium) 1,2 . Furthermore, the discoveries in nuclear science have also led to modern innovation and technology advances that have improved our lives by enabling, for example, the sustainable clean energy 3,4 , the introduction and use of radioisotopes for medical diagnosis and therapeutic purposes [5][6][7][8] , and advances in material science 9,10 by use of the nuclear reaction microanalysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear Reaction Network Unveils Novel Reaction Patterns and Nuclei Stability

Jiang

Szymanski

Havlin

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Despite the advances in discovering new nuclei, modeling microscopic nuclear structure, nuclear reactors, and stellar nucleosynthesis, we lack a systemic tool, in the form of a network framework, to understand the structure and dynamics of 70 thousands reactions discovered until now. We assemble here a nuclear reaction network in which a node represents a nuclide, and a link represents a direct reaction between nuclides. Interestingly, the degree distribution of nuclear network exhibits a bimodal distribution that significantly deviates from the power-law distribution of scale-free networks and Poisson distribution of random networks. The distribution is universal for reactions with a rate below the threshold, λ-Tγ, where T is the temperature and γ≈1.05. We discovered three rules that govern the structure pattern of nuclear reaction network: (i) reaction-type is determined by linking choices, (ii) spatial distances between the reacting nuclides are short, and (iii) each node in- and out- degrees are close to each other. By incorporating these three rules, our model unveils the underlying nuclear reaction patterns hidden in a large and dense nuclear reaction network. It enables us to predict missing links that represent possible new nuclear reactions not yet discovered.

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“…Nuclear power plants are base-load power station with steady but massive power output compared to its size and fuel consumption. Also, it is sometimes argued to be one of the clean energy sources with very low Carbon-di-oxide emission [1]. However, there is a concern among the mass people regarding the potential hazards associated with an accident in a nuclear power plant.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pctran-Based Investigation on the Effect of Inadvertent Control Rod Withdrawal on the Thermal-Hydraulic Parameters of a Vver-1200 Nuclear Power Reactor

Khan¹,

Islam²

2019

Acta mech. Malays.

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In this work, the effect of inadvertent control rod withdrawal on the thermal-hydraulic parameters of VVER-1200 type nuclear power reactor has been investigated. Personal Computer Transient Analyzer (PCTRAN) has been used to simulate the transient responses associated with the situation. An attempt has been made to find out the maximum amount of positive reactivity that may be inserted instantaneously without causing serious damage to any of the essential reactor components. Four instantaneous positive reactivity insertion case studies have been performed in the range of 2.5-10% Δk/k in order to identify the limiting condition for ensuring safety of the nuclear facility. Results show that for all the cases, prompt criticality is observed due to positive reactivity insertion higher than 0.66% Δk/k. For positive reactivity insertion up to 7.5% Δk/k, the maximum core thermal power is observed to be less than 160% of the rated core thermal power. The peak cladding temperature is observed to be less than 800 o C with no clad failure. However, for 10% Δk/k reactivity insertion, core thermal power has been observed to reach nearly 360% of the rated core thermal power. Also, a 76% probability of cladding failure is recorded due to peak cladding temperature reaching nearly 1400 o C. To identify the maximum limit of instantaneous positive reactivity insertion, a "Factor of Safety" based analysis has been conducted. Results from the analysis reveal that maximum limit is around 8.8% Δk/k. This finding is supported by the results from further simulations.

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Going nuclear for climate mitigation: An analysis of the cost effectiveness of preserving existing U.S. nuclear power plants as a carbon avoidance strategy

Cited by 54 publications

References 15 publications

Radiation enhanced chemical production: Improving the value proposition of nuclear power

Radiation enhanced chemical production: Improving the value proposition of nuclear power

Nuclear Reaction Network Unveils Novel Reaction Patterns and Nuclei Stability

A Pctran-Based Investigation on the Effect of Inadvertent Control Rod Withdrawal on the Thermal-Hydraulic Parameters of a Vver-1200 Nuclear Power Reactor

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