Study of S-CO2 power cycle for water-cooled SMR with a desalination capability

Abstract

Nuclear power plant with a desalination capability has been investigated because demand for converting sea water to fresh water has grown significantly in many countries as well as the electricity demand. SMART, which is a promising advanced water-cooled small modular reactor, is also capable of co-generation. However, the electricity production decreased due to the extraction of high temperature steam for thermal desalination. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle as the most promising power conversion system due to its high cycle efficiency, small turbomachinery and compact heat exchanger. KAIST team evaluated the possibility of minimizing the decrease of cycle efficiency with the S-CO2 Brayton cycle as a power conversion technology for SMART. The simple recuperated cycle has the best potential for this application. This paper shows the higher cycle performance with a simple layout and compact heat exchangers