Infrastructure of low-capacity nuclear power plants

Abstract

Conceptual questions concerning the development of a system of low-capacity nuclear power plants are discussed. The basic properties which the nuclear power facilities of such plants must have are formulated. Questions concerning personnel training, the control characteristics of a system of low-capacity plants, decommissioning, and the requirements for physical protection are examined. The need to develop special normative documentation for low-capacity nuclear power plants is substantiated. Questions concerning the ecological effects of low-capacity power generation are touched upon.At present, the term "low-capacity nuclear power plant" refers not only to capacity-limited plants, for example, to 300 MW according to the IAEA, but also their design features, consisting in the possibility of assembling a power facility at the site of operation from a small number of blocks (modules) and manufacture at machine building enterprises. Nonetheless, a low-capacity nuclear power plant is a complex system, including a nuclear power facility and infrastructure, distribution facilities, physical and usual protection, a berthing facility and waterside (hydraulic) structures in the case of a floating plant, training of highly skilled workers, and normative documentation. The infrastructure also includes means for delivering the plants to the site, ensuring correct functioning, shipment for maintenance, organization of a fuel cycle, means for repairing the facility, and decommissioning.Ordinarily, scientific publications are concerned only with the power complex; the infrastructure remains outside the sphere of interest. But it introduces important corrections, especially in the economic performance indicators. Characteristics. A low-capacity nuclear power plant operating in an isolated power system must have at least two independently operating power facilities. If one malfunctions, then the other facility must provide all power that is required, otherwise in northern regions the welfare of the population will be threatened in 40-degree frosts. The energy store in the core of a ground-based power plant must last for the entire service life of the facility. This eliminates the need to construct and service a permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.The energy store of the core of a reactor in a floating plant, in contrast to a ground-based plant, must provide for operation of a floating power-generating unit without refueling for the entire period between overhauls. This eliminates the need for on-board refueling equipment and a spent-fuel repository as well as for complicated operations with nuclear fuel. In addition, because there is no need for a repository the floating power-generating unit displaces less water.It is desirable to increase the inter-overhaul period of the power unit of a floating power plant as much as possible. It is known that the nominal inter-overhaul period of the floating unit Akademik Lomonosov, which is currently under construction, is 10-12 yr. Meanwhile, the power facility on the icebrea...

Recent Advances in Ocean Nuclear Power Plants

“…Because the KLT-40S [12] reactor plant designs are the best developed and most appropriate arrangement of NPP for land or use on a non-self-propelled watercraft, it was chosen for mounting on Russia's first floating-type NPP, named Akademik Lomonosov [25][26][27], as shown in Figure 1. This SMR-mounted floating-type FPU was launched on 30 June 2010 and its reactors are expected to be delivered in 2016.…”