Balance of Plant Design Issues for Small Reactors in Canada

摘要

Internationally, several companies are exploring design and development of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) ranging in power from 10 MWe to 300 MWe. While the designs are proceeding, the main issue at hand is finding a site for deployment of the first unit. Connection to existing well established grids is currently not competitive in part due to First of a Kind (FOAK) costs. As such, many vendors are exploring unique and remote applications where FOAK costs are not as significant a concern. One of the major assumptions in the design process usually followed is that the major effort needs to concentrate on reactor core development. While the reactor core is important, costs associated with the balance of plant and operations of the unit are likely to play an important role in the final decision of purchase. In this work, a series of conceptual designs is performed for the support systems of a small modular reactor by successive teams of undergraduate students working over semester long periods during a 3 year period. The goal of this process is to determine to what extent current technology for the balance of plant supports the development of a cost effective SMR. Each system is given to a team with an open set of criteria for design. At the completion of the design exercise, an open discussion with the teams is held regarding the staffing requirements for an SMR. The results are preliminary and reflect the open nature of the exercise. That said, the results indicate that for an SMR to be truly competitive, significant innovation is required in addressing the supporting systems of the plant.