Conventional Light Water Reactors Research Articles

The second nuclear ERA: A nuclear renaissance

The growth of nuclear power has come to a halt in the United States because of slow electricity load growth, high costs, and public opposition based on concerns about radiation. Analyses are presented of current trends in reactor safety and economics: these show that public risks are very low and being reduced, while costs are still increasing. Future markets for conventional light water reactors appear to be limited by investor risk and uncertain capital costs. The development of inherently safe reactors, such as the Swedish PIUS concept or the modular HTGR, is recommended as a means of reducing risk and regaining public acceptance.

Pebble-Bed Nuclear Reactor Readied For Power Generation

In the small West German town of Schmehausen, near Dortmund, an unusual nuclear reactor is going through final stages of testing before it begins generating electricity about this time next year. It is the first large reactor to use spherically shaped nuclear fuel elements. Engineers at Mannheim-based Hoch-temperatur-Reaktorbau (HRB) responsible for its design believe the reactor could become a leading contender for future fission-based nuclear power plants. The engineers cite a number of reasons for their optimism. The pebble-bed reactor, as it is called, avoids most of the potential dangers inherent in reactors with metalclad fuel elements. For example, the possibility of core meltdown, the nagging worry associated with conventional light-water reactors, is nonexistent, they say. Important, too, from a commercial standpoint is that process heat of up to 950 °C could be tapped to drive a number of chemical operations via coal gasification, in addition to generating electricity. Like other developments in...

The tokamak hybrid reactor

At a time when the potential benefits of various energy options are being seriously evaluated in many countries throughout the world, it is both timely and important to evaluate the practical application of fusion reactors for their economical production of nuclear fissile fuels from fertile fuels. The fusion hybrid reactor represents a concept that could assure the availability of adequate fuel supplies for a proven nuclear technology and have the potential of being an electrical energy source as opposed to an energy consumer as are the present fuel enrichment processes. Westinghouse Fusion Power Systems Department, under Contract No. EG-77-C-02-4544 with the Department of Energy, Office of Fusion Energy, has developed a preliminary conceptual design for an early twenty-first century fusion hybrid reactor called the Commercial Tokamak Hybrid Reactor (CTHR) [1]. This design was developed as a first generation commercial plant producing fissile fuel to support a significant number of ‘client’ Light Water Reactor (LWR) Plants. To the depth this study has been performed, no insurmountable technical problems have been identified. The study has provided a basis for reasonable cost estimates of the hybrid plants as well as the hybrid/LWR system busbar electricity costs. This energy system can be optimized to have a net cost of busbar electricity that is equivalent to the conventional LWR plant, yet is not dependent on uranium ore prices or standard enrichment costs, since the fusion hybrid can be fueled by numerous fertile fuel resources. A nearer-term concept is also defined using a beam driven fusion driver in lieu of the longer term ignited operating mode.