Author(s)

Morteza Gharib, Abdolazim Yaghooti, Majid Oloomi Buygi

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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 MW_e 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/MW_e, extra power generated is feasible.

Upgrade Efficiency, Nuclear Power Plant, PWR

Gharib, M. , Yaghooti, A. and Buygi, M. (2011) Efficiency Upgrade in PWRs. Energy and Power Engineering, 3, 533-536. doi: 10.4236/epe.2011.34065.