| AVS 54th International Symposium | |
| The Industrial Physics Forum 2007: The Energy Challenge | Monday Sessions |
| Session IPF-MoA |
| Session: | Nuclear Energy |
| Presenter: | E.M. Campbell, General Atomics |
| Authors: | E.M. Campbell, General Atomics F. Venneri, General Atomics A.S. Shenoy, General Atomics C.J. Hamilton, General Atomics |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Given the increased worldwide demand for energy, the desire for energy security and the need to reduce anthropenic influence on the earth’s climate, it appears certain that there will be a significant increase in the role of nuclear power. While the early expansion of nuclear power will be dominated by light water reactors with modern safety features and improved economics, advanced Generation IV reactors such as high temperature gas reactors will become increasingly important following the demonstration of commercial scale prototypes in the next decade. High temperature gas reactors have many attractive features arising from the use of inert helium gas as a coolant, graphite as a moderator and fuel encapsulated in a robust TRISO ceramic coating. These features enable the reactors to be passively safe — they employ no safety features with an emergency core coolant reservoir — while not sacrificing attractive economics, and at the same time producing output temperatures in excess of 900ºC. Such temperatures allow for flexibility in siting (even in regions with little or no water availability), and the efficient production of electricity as well as numerous process heat applications such as the large scale production of hydrogen and economic desalination. These latter applications which to date have not used a “nuclear heat source” will become increasingly important in the future and are made possible only by these Generation IV reactors. The fuel form in these reactors enables a wide range of fission fuels to be deployed including uranium, thorium, and actinides including those from spent fuel, allows for extremely deep burn, and provides increased barriers for proliferation. In this presentation the role of gas reactors in an expanding nuclear market will be discussed. Their unique features will be presented including passive safety, economics, modularity, fuel and siting flexibility, applications and symbiosis with other reactors such as fast sodium reactors. An attractive scenario for the large scale deployment of these reactors which addresses fuel availability and waste will also be included.
*Work supported by General Atomics internal funding.