Efficiency Upgrade in PWRs ()
Abstract
Most of the light water reactor power plants now operating or under construction use pressurized-water reactor (PWR). They are suffering of relatively low thermal efficiency which is around 33%. This would not only have a negative impact economically but also incurs environmental burden in terms of thermal pollution. In this paper, nuclear steam supply system of a typical PWR has been taken into consideration using 1000 MWe Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) data. It is shown thermal efficiency could conceivably be increased by superheating live steam with natural gas up to around 40%, competing with similar fossil-fueled power plants. It is further shown that fuel cost (natural gas) as low as 0.12 Cent/MWe, extra power generated is feasible.
Share and Cite:
M. Gharib, A. Yaghooti and M. Buygi, "Efficiency Upgrade in PWRs,"
Energy and Power Engineering, Vol. 3 No. 4, 2011, pp. 533-536. doi:
10.4236/epe.2011.34065.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
References
|
[1]
|
L. S. Tong and J. Weisman, “Thermal Analysis of Pressurized Water Reactor,” 3rd Edition, American Nuclear Society Book Publishing, New York, 1996
|
|
[2]
|
E. Jeffs, “Generating Power at High Efficiency: Combined-Cycles Technology for Sustainable Energy Production,” Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge, 2008.
|
|
[3]
|
A. V. Nero Jr., “A Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors,” University of California Press, Ewing, 1979.
|
|
[4]
|
M. Gharib, “Natural Gas Superheat Steam in PWRs,” The 4th International Conference of Safety Assurance of Nuclear Power Plants with WWER, Podolsk, 23-26 May 2005.
|
|
[5]
|
K. Kwangil, Engineering Equation Solver (EES), version 4.789, Samsung Electronics Co., Korea, 1992-1998.
|
|
[6]
|
National Iranian Oil Company Site. http://www.nc.org.ir
|
|
[7]
|
International Energy Agency, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development “Projected Cost of Generating Electricity,” OECD Publishing, Paris, 2005.
|