UK Royal Society promotes nuclear cogeneration
A report from the Royal Society, the UK’s independent scientific academy, suggests that nuclear plants should be able to switch output between electricity and heat so as to fit in better with increasing proportion of power from intermittent renewables. Its main focus is heat rather than surplus electricity (as with so-called ‘green’ hydrogen), and it outlines a number of cogeneration options for either low or high-temperature heat. For low temperatures (100-200°C), district heating is already well established in other countries using what is otherwise waste heat, and 50 conurbations in UK have potential. For high temperatures (over 400°C, and representing 26% of total industrial heat demand in EU), hydrogen /ammonia production and desalination are both options where the product can be stored, so need not be continuous in the same way as meeting base-load electricity demand. Coal to liquids processes can also use heat in this range. In the UK 14 of its nuclear fleet are Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR of 480 to 620 MWe each) which operate at over 600°C, as do a few of the advanced small modular reactors under development. An Appendix considers nuclear steelmaking.
https://royalsociety.org/-/media/policy/projects/nuclear-cogeneration/2020-10-7-nuclear-cogeneration-policy-briefing.pdf
WNN 8/10/20.
Process heat
First Belarus nuclear power reactor starts up
The first of two reactors at Belarus’ Ostrovets nuclear power plant has started up. This is a Russian VVER-1200 unit, the same as that at Leningrad II in Russia. Unit 2 at Ostrovets is about a year behind it. The plant is close to the Lithuanian border, and is to reduce the country’s dependence on imported Russian gas. The Ostravets plant is financed by a state-to-state $10 billion loan from the Russian government.
WNN 12/10/20.
Belarus
Initial grants under US Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program
In May the US Department of Energy set up a $3.2 billion cost-share program for the construction of advanced reactors that can be operational within seven years. Two initial grants have now been announced: $80 million each to TerraPower and X-energy to build demonstration plants. X-energy will build four units of its Xe-100, a 75 MWe high-temperature gas-cooled small modular reactor, and a TRISO fuel plant for them. TerraPower will build the Natrium fast neutron reactor developed with GE Hitachi and based on its 345 MWe PRISM reactor, with added heat storage. The secondary coolant is molten salt which can be stored hot or used to make steam in a heat exchanger, switching between the two as required so that plant output can vary between 30% and 150% of reactor power.
The DOE program is designed to claw back some of the technological status in nuclear power that the USA enjoyed four decades ago. Key criteria for selecting applicants included innovative reactor design and credible management team able to supply the required 50-50 match in resources and deliver the projects within seven years. DOE worked closely with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission since licensing will be required. Funding awards for up to five further projects with longer time horizons are expected in December.
WNN 14/10/20.
US Nuclear power policy
