A Low Cost Supercritical Nuclear + Coal 3.0 GWE Power Plant

12 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2012

See all articles by Pedro Cosme Vieira

Pedro Cosme Vieira

Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Economia (FEP)

Date Written: June 6, 2012

Abstract

The rapid growth in the consumption of electricity in China and India has been covered at 80% by coal, which has the side effect of emitting CO2 to the atmosphere. The alternative is the use of nuclear energy that, to become unquestionably competitive, must use super critical water as coolant. The problem is that the inflow temperature of a super critical turbine must be at least 500 ºC that is impossible to attain using the mainstream PWR and it is uneconomical to accomplish in a pressure tubes similar to the CANDU and the RBMK reactors. In this paper, I propose a simple but important innovation that is the coupling of the nuclear reactor to a coal fired heater. With this apparently small improvement, it becomes feasible to build a multi-tube slightly super critical pressure light water reactor where the outflow low temperature of the nuclear reactor, ≤ 400 ºC, results in a simple nuclear reactor. The design I propose will originate a 50% decrease in the cost of the electricity produced using nuclear energy.

Keywords: electricity production, supercritical water reactor, nuclear energy, coal fired plant, multi-tube reactor, SCWR

JEL Classification: O13, Q4

Suggested Citation

Vieira, Pedro Cosme Costa, A Low Cost Supercritical Nuclear + Coal 3.0 GWE Power Plant (June 6, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2078870 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2078870

Pedro Cosme Costa Vieira (Contact Author)

Universidade do Porto - Faculdade de Economia (FEP) ( email )

R. Dr. Roberto Frias, 80
Porto, 4200-464
Portugal

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