The document compares two Generation III+ reactor designs: the VVER TOI and the AP1000. The VVER TOI is a Russian water-water reactor with a thermal capacity of 3300 MW and electrical capacity of 1255 MW. It focuses on stability, safety, and independence from external power sources. It has both active and passive safety systems. The AP1000 is a Western two-loop pressurized water reactor with a thermal capacity of 3415 MW and electrical capacity of 1110-1117 MW. Its design focus is on being cheaper by reducing equipment, valves, pumps and piping. It utilizes passive safety systems for 72 hours of cooling without external power.
The document compares two Generation III+ reactor designs: the VVER TOI and the AP1000. The VVER TOI is a Russian water-water reactor with a thermal capacity of 3300 MW and electrical capacity of 1255 MW. It focuses on stability, safety, and independence from external power sources. It has both active and passive safety systems. The AP1000 is a Western two-loop pressurized water reactor with a thermal capacity of 3415 MW and electrical capacity of 1110-1117 MW. Its design focus is on being cheaper by reducing equipment, valves, pumps and piping. It utilizes passive safety systems for 72 hours of cooling without external power.
The document compares two Generation III+ reactor designs: the VVER TOI and the AP1000. The VVER TOI is a Russian water-water reactor with a thermal capacity of 3300 MW and electrical capacity of 1255 MW. It focuses on stability, safety, and independence from external power sources. It has both active and passive safety systems. The AP1000 is a Western two-loop pressurized water reactor with a thermal capacity of 3415 MW and electrical capacity of 1110-1117 MW. Its design focus is on being cheaper by reducing equipment, valves, pumps and piping. It utilizes passive safety systems for 72 hours of cooling without external power.
VVER TOI (Water-water Energetic Thermal Capacity = 3300 MW - Radiation safety is Reactor Universal Optimized Electrical Capacity = 1255 MW assembled in a way to avoid Digital) impermissible ionizing radiation to the population Design Focus: Improvement of the and environment competitiveness of Russian VVER surrounding the powerplant. design internationally by enhancing - For security purposes, the on the following: nuclear fuel, boundaries of the coolant circuit, and hermetic equipment would Stability in the terms of serve as barriers for the critical external impacts and entire nuclear plant, natural disasters. - Has protection against Correspondence to the world external impact such as accepted rules and intensity 7 seismic waves, regulations. air impact waves at 30kPa with a compression phase Correspondence to the duration of 1 second, wind climatic conditions from the maximum design of 56 tropics up to Northern meters per second, regions. tornadoes, floods & storms, Independence in the terms of and a strike from a 400-ton external power and water aircraft at a velocity of 150 supply sources loss. m/s with consideration of fuel fire. - Possesses the following active safety systems: - System of fuel pool emergency and scheduled cooling down and cooling; - Boron injection emergency system; - Emergency steam generator cooling down system; - Emergency power supply system (diesel-generator set). - Possesses the following passive safety systems:
a. passive part of the core
emergency cooling system; b. passive core-flooding system; c. water supply system from the fuel pond to primary circuit; d. system of passive heat removal from steam generator; e. primary circuit protection against overpressure; f. secondary circuit protection against overpressure; g. fast-acting pressure reducing station; h. emergency gas-removal system; i. emergency power supply system (accumulators); j. passive system of inner shell leakages filtration.
- Contains a corium trap
- Uses water both as moderator and coolant - Four Loop
AP1000 Thermal Capacity = 3415 MW - Two-Loop PWR
- Water as moderator and Design Focus: Cheaper by reducing (USA) Electrical Capacity = 1110 to coolant equipment 1117 MW - 50% fewer safety-related (China) Electrical Capacity = 1157 valves to 1170 MW - 35% fewer pumps - 80% less safety-related piping - 85% less control cable - 45% less seismic building volume - Maximum core damage frequency of 5.09 × 10−7 per plant per year - Used fuel can be stored in water. Aged fuel can also be stored on the ground but encased in a dry cask storage. - Has a water tank affixed above the reactor itself. - The system utilizes multiple explosively-operated and DC operated valves that operates during the first thirty minutes even in the absence of an operator. - Passively eliminates heat for 72 hours, then relies on the water top for further cooling, as long as required. - Passive cooling system features water flowing over the top of the reactor by virtue of gravity where it evaporates to remove heat. CAP1400 Thermal Capacity = 4040 MW - Two-loop PWR Electrical Capacity = 1500 MW - 193 fuel assemblies with Design Focus: Larger energy enhanced steam generators. capacity - Output temperatures of 323 degree Celsius. - 60 years lifetime - 72 hours no interruption in case of accidents - Mean discharge burn-up is about 50 GWd/t with a maximum of 59.5 GWd/t - Contains extra control rods for MOX capability - Seismic rating of 300 cm/s 2 EPR (Evolutionary Power Reactor) Thermal Capacity = 4400 MW - Can utilize any of the three Electrical Capacity = 1650 MW as fuel: 5% enriched Design Focus: Increased safety uranium oxide, reprocessed uranium fuel, pure uranium- plutonium oxide - Burns 17% lesser uranium fuel per unit of electrical energy produced, than older designs. - Four self-sustaining emergency cooling systems, each providing the required cooling of the decay heat that persists for one to three years after the reactor's initial shutdown. - Hermetically design reactor - Corium trap in an event of core escape - Two-layer concrete wall with total thickness 2.6 m, designed to withstand impact by airplanes and internal overpressure. - Maximum core damage frequency of 6.1 × 10−7 per station per year - Uses only one steam engine, and is capable of utilizing all the steam produced IPHWR-700 (Indian Pressurized Thermal Capacity = 2166 MW - Uses heavy water as coolant Heavy Water Reactor-700) Electrical Capacity = 700 MW and moderator. - Two different and quick- Design Focus: Improvement of the reacting shutdown systems CANDU system for reduced - Reactor building contains construction time and cost and double containment addition of new safety mechanisms - Water-filled calandria vault - Integral calandria - end shield assembly - Zr-2.5% Nb pressure tubes separated from respective calandria tubes - Calandria tube filled with carbon dioxide (recirculated) to monitor pressure tube leak - Partial boiling at the coolant channel outlet - Combination of primary heat transport system feeders - Passive decay heat removal system - Regional over power protection - Containment spray system - Mobile fuel transfer machine - Steel lined containment wall
Table 2.1 - NUCLEAR REACTOR COOLANTS
COOLANT ADVANTAGES DISADVATANGES
Light Water (Ordinary water) - Easy to obtain - Can restrict a reactor under - Can act as both coolant and the critical temperature and moderator critical pressure of 374OC and - Has the highest heat capacity 218 bar, limiting a reactor’s for any liquid, which is 4.184 thermal efficiency. Joules - Some neutrons interact with the hydrogen and could form deuterium where some of which may evolve to the radioactive tritium. This causes the formation of radioactive water and sometimes could leak onto the ground exposing the workers to radiation. - Due to the former, light water has relatively high neutron capture which limits the nuclear chain reaction. Heavy Water (Deuterium oxide) - Has identical properties with - Similarly, with light water, that of light water but has neutrons may also interact lower neutron capture, which with the hydrogen atoms in implies more fission activity. D2O and eventually evolve to - Has a higher boiling point tritium atoms, forming than that of light water at radioactive water. 345OC (154 bar). Borated Water - Taken in the form of boric - About 90% of tritium acid or sodium borate, and formation is due to reactions combined with water to form between boron-10 and borate water, which can be thermal neutrons. Tritium is a used to absorb heat from the radioactive isotope and, in the reactor core and transfer it to presence of water, forms a secondary circuit. radioactive water. - Can be used in emergency core cooling systems, since it has high neutron capture capabilities. Molten Metals / Liquid Metals - Has higher rate of heat - Being electrically conductive, absorption, as well as higher such coolant would require power density. electromagnetic pumps in - The high temperatures of the order to flow. metals could also be - Difficulties in inspection and employed for the production repair of equipment such as of vapors, which increases a pumps and pipes submerged reactor’s thermal efficiency. in the dense liquid metal. - Risks of fire ignitions (for alkali metals), pipe and tube corrosions, and production of radioactive activation products. Molten Salt - Can be operated - Hot salts can create a approximately to atmospheric corrosive environment and pressure, as compared to light damage the pipes and tubes. water reactors which still - Chemical composition of the requires pressures of 75 to salts often transmute due to 150 times greater than the exposure from radiation. atmospheric pressure. - Reduces the size and cost required for a Light Water Reactor due to removal of pressurizing equipment. - Operates at relatively higher temperatures, which means higher electricity-generation efficiency and even process- heat opportunities. Gas - Can operate at 800 to 850 OC - Has lower heat transfer and giving ang energy conversion transport capabilities (low efficiency as high as 40% or heat absorption and possible even 50% when advanced gas heat losses to the turbines are used surroundings upon transport). - Uses a lower core power - Requires large contact density and a high heat surfaces and flow passages in capacity core that helps limit the reactor and heat fuel temperatures in events exchangers. of loss-of-coolant accident. - Has higher pumping - Avoids steam-zirconium requirements. reactions which often generates the explosive hydrogen gas. - Plants utilizing gas coolants can be refueled even while at full operation. Hydrocarbon - Less corrosive than water - Has a relatively lower heat when in contact with metals capacity than water, which (eliminates the complicated means the HCs would require assembly of pipes, higher flow rates to achieve elimination of corrosion- the same cooling effect of resistant pipes and therefore water. can be constructed using the - The thermal neutrons typical carbon steels instead) produced during the reaction - Some HC do dot flash into could interact with the HC gas unlike water, which then and break them into smaller eliminates the use of chain wherein some produces containment structures. a tar-like substance and could block the pipes over time. Some of the produced shorter chains could even be toxic and flammable.
Table 2.2 - NEUTRON MODERATORS
MODERATOR ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Graphite - Cheap - Needs to be extremely pure in - Thermally stable order to be an effective - Conducts heat well moderator. Even the slightest amount of contamination would hinder it ineffective. - Could react with carbon and oxygen, reducing its effectiveness. - Could potentially be oxidized in the presence of air, and with its low strength and low density, it could change forms within the reactor. - Could be dangerous when paired with a water coolant as were in the Chernobyl accident. Heavy Water - Works well as a neutron - Neutron absorption cross- moderator since it contains a section is lower lot of hydrogen atoms, and - High cost of production one hydrogen is enough to impede a neutron. - Provides higher efficiency and requires lesser enriched uranium. Light Water - Works well as a neutron - Since LW has a higher moderator since it contains a neutron absorption cross lot of hydrogen atoms, and section, it could impede the one hydrogen is enough to fission activity, thus, it is best impede a neutron. to use LW only with enriched - Readily available and fuels. inexpensive. - Water has a tendency to - Has low void coefficient expand when too much - Negative Doppler reactivity neutrons is absorbed, coefficient (also known as increasing kinetic activity and fuel temperature coefficient) radioactivity and eventually lead to core meltdown.