B&W mPower
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The B&W mPower is a proposed small modular, Generation III++ integral pressurized water reactor. The reactor is designed by Babcock & Wilcox, and to be built by Generation mPower LLC, a joint venture of Babcock & Wilcox and Bechtel. By its design, B&W mPower is a light water reactor. Its reactor and steam generator are located in a single reactor vessel located in an underground containment facility that would store all of the spent fuel the reactor would use during its expected 60 year operating lifetime.[1][2] The reactor has a rated output of 500 MWt of thermal power and 160 MWe of electrical power.[1]
Babcock & Wilcox is planning to apply to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for design certification by 2013, and plans to deploy the first unit by 2020 at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Clinch River Site.[3]
Fuel and refueling
B&W mPower is designed for a 5-year refueling cycle, and has a core that can be completely removed in a single evolution, and completely replaced in a second separate evolution, making the core nearly "plug and play", unlike traditional reactors, which require fuel handling and movement of individual fuel rods during a refueling outage. The entire used core, once removed, can be placed in storage in the spent fuel pool next to the IRV in the containment, which is designed to hold an entire 60 years worth of used fuel, and is accessible by the containment gantry crane located above the IRV within the containment.[2]
The core will not be a "plug and play cartridge" due to source term concerns [if dropped]; rather the traditional PWR fuel is off-loaded one assembly at a time as is typical of operating reactors. This evolution will not take long since the core comprises 69 fuel assemblies. Every feature of the fuel assembly is conventional and based on proven technology; the mPower reactor fuel is exceedingly similar to the fuel loaded in the AP-1000, EPR, and many other PWRs. Although the mPower reactor is advertised to operate for 4[not 5]-years between refueling, customers may operate this reactor with more frequent refueling outages if they so desire.
Thermal hydraulics
The mPower incorporates several features of the boiling water reactor (BWR). Like a BWR, the mPower reactor's primary coolant/moderator is highly purified water (with no boric acid). The Reactor Water Cleanup System ensures that primary system water remains pure. Similar to the ABWR, the mPower reactor has integral coolant recirculation pumps inside the Integral Reactor Vessel (IRV). The mPower reactor control rods are inserted from the top of the core and insert upon scram under gravity. All of the primary coolant is in the liquid phase during normal operation.[citation needed]
The mPower reactor is an advanced, generation 3++ light water reactor. The pressurizer, steam generator, primary coolant loop piping and reactivity control components are contained within a single Integral Reactor Vessel (IRV). The integral once-through steam generator is an advanced derivative of the steam generators used in older B&W designs (Davis Besse). Control rod drives do not penetrate the IRV, as in the light water reactors of today, but are instead wholly enclosed within the IRV. Burnable neutron absorbers within the fuel and control rod inventory is used to suppress hot excess reactivity. Cold shut-down is accomplished with control rod insertion (as in BWRs).[citation needed]
The mPower is designed to produce superheated steam and does not require steam separators and dryers prior to admitting steam into the high pressure turbine.[citation needed]
Safety
The mPower is designed so as to make loss of coolant accidents impossible due to the Integral Reactor Vessel which contains the entire primary coolant loop within the reactor pressure vessel. If secondary cooling is lost, creating an effective loss of standard heat removal, there are water supplies located above and within the containment that can be used to cool the IRV with gravity driven-cooling. Further advanced means of heat removal can be used in the event that these systems are exhausted, such as by flooding the containment and establishing natural circulation.[citation needed]
See also
References
- ^ a b "B&W mPower". Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ a b Spring, Nancy (2010-01-01). "B&W mPower". Power Engineering. Pennwell Corporation. Retrieved 2012-02-16.
- ^ Generation mPower and TVA sign letter of intent for B&W mPower rector project