The Idaho National Laboratory prepared a preliminary technical and functional requirements (T&FR), thermal hydraulic design and cost estimate for a lead coolant test facility. The purpose of this small scale facility is to simulate lead coolant fast reactor (LFR) coolant flow in an open lattice geometry core using seven electrical rods and liquid lead or lead–bismuth eutectic coolant. Based on review of current world lead or lead–bismuth test facilities and research needs listed in the Generation IV Roadmap, five broad areas of requirements were identified as listed below:•Develop and demonstrate feasibility of submerged heat exchanger.•Develop and demonstrate open-lattice flow in electrically heated core.•Develop and demonstrate chemistry control.•Demonstrate safe operation.•Provision for future testing.

A reference design for a commercial-scale high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) plant for hydrogen production was developed to provide a basis for comparing the HTE concept with other hydrogen-production concepts. The reference plant design is driven by a high-temperature helium-cooled nuclear reactor coupled to a direct Brayton power cycle. The reference design reactor power is 600 MWt, with a primary system pressure of 7.0 MPa, and reactor inlet and outlet fluid temperatures of 540°C and 900°C, respectively. The electrolysis unit used to produce hydrogen includes 4,009,177 cells with a per-cell active area of 225 cm2. The optimized design for the reference hydrogen-production plant operates at a system pressure of 5.0 MPa, and utilizes an air-sweep system to remove the excess oxygen that has evolved on the anode (oxygen) side of the electrolyzer. The inlet air for the air-sweep system is compressed to the system operating pressure of 5.0 MPa in a four-stage compressor with intercooling. The alternating current to direct current conversion efficiency is 96%. The overall system thermal-to-hydrogen-production efficiency (based on the lower heating value of the produced hydrogen) is 47.1% at a hydrogen-production rate of 2.356 kg/s. This hydrogen-production efficiency is considerably higher than can be achieved using current low-temperature electrolysis techniques. An economic analysis of this plant was performed using the standardized hydrogen analysis methodology developed by the Department of Energy Hydrogen Program, and using realistic financial and cost estimating assumptions. The results of the economic analysis demonstrated that the HTE hydrogen-production plant driven by a high-temperature helium-cooled nuclear power plant can deliver hydrogen at a competitive cost. A cost of $3.23/kg of hydrogen was calculated assuming an internal rate of return of 10%.

A system analysis has been performed to assess the efficiency and carbon utilization of a nuclear-assisted coal gasification process. The nuclear reactor is a high-temperature helium-cooled reactor that is used primarily to provide power for hydrogen production via high-temperature electrolysis. The supplemental hydrogen is mixed with the outlet stream from an oxygen-blown coal gasifier to produce a hydrogen-rich gas mixture, allowing most of the carbon dioxide to be converted into carbon monoxide, with enough excess hydrogen to produce a syngas product stream with a hydrogen/carbon monoxide molar ratio of about 2:1. Oxygen for the gasifier is also provided by the high-temperature electrolysis process. The results of the analysis predict 90.5% carbon utilization with a syngas production efficiency (defined as the ratio of the heating value of the produced syngas to the sum of the heating value of the coal plus the high-temperature reactor heat input) of 64.4% at a gasifier temperature of 1866 K for the high-moisture-content lignite coal considered. Usage of lower moisture coals such as bituminous can yield carbon utilization approaching 100% and 70% syngas production efficiency.

As part of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project, an evaluation of a low-temperature heat-pump interface design for a nuclear-driven high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) hydrogen production plant was performed using the UniSim process analysis software. The low-temperature interface design is intended to reduce the interface temperature between the reactor power conversion system and the hydrogen production plant by extracting process heat from the low temperature portion of the power cycle rather than from the high-temperature portion of the cycle as is done with the current Idaho National Laboratory (INL) reference design. The intent of this design change is to mitigate the potential for tritium migration from the reactor core to the hydrogen plant, and reduce the potential for high temperature creep in the interface structures. The UniSim model assumed a 600 MWt Very-High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) operating at a primary system pressure of 7.0 MPa and a reactor outlet temperature of 900°C. The low-temperature heat-pump loop is a water/steam loop that operates between 2.6 MPa and 5.0 MPa. The HTE hydrogen production loop operated at 5 MPa, with plant conditions optimized to maximize plant performance (i.e., 800°C electrolysis operating temperature, area specific resistance (ASR) = 0.4 ohm-cm2, and a current density of 0.25 amps/cm2). An air sweep gas system was used to remove oxygen from the anode side of the electrolyzer. Heat was also recovered from the hydrogen and oxygen product streams to maximize hydrogen production efficiencies. The results of the UniSim analysis showed that the low-temperature interface design was an effective heat-pump concept, transferring 31.5 MWt from the low-temperature leg of the gas turbine power cycle to the HTE process boiler, while consuming 16.0 MWe of compressor power. However, when this concept was compared with the current INL reference direct Brayton cycle design and with a modification of the reference design to simulate an indirect Brayton cycle (both with heat extracted from the high-temperature portion of the power cycle), the latter two concepts had higher overall hydrogen production rates and efficiencies compared to the low-temperature heat-pump concept, but at the expense of higher interface temperatures. Therefore, the ultimate decision on the viability of the low-temperature heat-pump concept involves a tradeoff between the benefits of a lower-temperature interface between the power conversion system and the hydrogen production plant, and the reduced hydrogen production efficiency of the low-temperature heat-pump concept compared to concepts using high-temperature process heat.

The use of High Temperature Electrolysis (HTE) for the efficient production of hydrogen without the greenhouse gas emissions associated with conventional fossil-fuel hydrogen production techniques has been under investigation at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory (INL) for the last several years. The activities at the INL have included the development, testing and analysis of large numbers of solid oxide electrolysis cells, and the analyses of potential plant designs for large scale production of hydrogen using an advanced Very-High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) to provide the process heat and electricity to drive the electrolysis process. The results of these system analyses, using the UniSim process analysis software, have shown that the HTE process, when coupled to a VHTR capable of operating at reactor outlet temperatures of 800 °C to 950 °C, has the potential to produce the large quantities of hydrogen needed to meet future energy and transportation needs with hydrogen production efficiencies in excess of 50%. In addition, economic analyses performed on the INL reference plant design, optimized to maximize the hydrogen production rate for a 600 MWt VHTR, have shown that a large nuclear-driven HTE hydrogen production plant can to be economically competitive with conventional hydrogen production processes, particularly whenmore » the penalties associated with greenhouse gas emissions are considered. The results of this research led to the selection in 2009 of HTE as the preferred concept in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hydrogen technology down-selection process. However, the down-selection process, along with continued technical assessments at the INL, has resulted in a number of proposed modifications and refinements to improve the original INL reference HTE design. These modifications include changes in plant configuration, operating conditions and individual component designs. This paper describes the resulting new INL reference design and presents results of system analyses performed to optimize the design and to determine required plant performance and operating conditions.« less

This report presents results from the development and optimization of a reference commercialscale high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) plant for hydrogen production. The reference plant design is driven by a high-temperature helium-cooled reactor coupled to a direct Brayton power cycle. The reference design reactor power is 600 MWt, with a primary system pressure of 7.0 MPa, and reactor inlet and outlet fluid temperatures of 540° C and 900°C, respectively. The electrolysis unit used to produce hydrogen consists of 4.176 × 10 6 cells with a per-cell active area of 225 cm2. A nominal cell area-specific resistance, ASR, value of 0.4 Ohm•cm2 with a current density of 0.25 A/cm2 was used, and isothermal boundary conditions were assumed. The optimized design for the reference hydrogen production plant operates at a system pressure of 5.0 MPa, and utilizes an air-sweep system to remove the excess oxygen that is evolved on the anode side of the electrolyzer. The inlet air for the air-sweep system is compressed to the system operating pressure of 5.0 MPa in a four-stage compressor with intercooling. The overall system thermal-to-hydrogen production efficiency (based on the low heating value of the produced hydrogen) is 49.07% at a hydrogen production rate of 2.45 kg/smore » with the high-temperature helium-cooled reactor concept. The information presented in this report is intended to establish an optimized design for the reference nuclear-driven HTE hydrogen production plant so that parameters can be compared with other hydrogen production methods and power cycles to evaluate relative performance characteristics and plant economics.« less

Hydrogen and electricity are expected to dominate the world energy system in the long term. The world currently consumes about 50 million metric tons of hydrogen per year, with the bulk of it being consumed by the chemical and refining industries. The demand for hydrogen is expected to increase, especially if the U.S. and other countries shift their energy usage towards a hydrogen economy, with hydrogen consumed as an energy commodity by the transportation, residential, and commercial sectors. However, there is strong motivation to not use fossil fuels in the future as a feedstock for hydrogen production, because the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is a byproduct and fossil fuel prices are expected to increase significantly. For electricity and hydrogen production, an advanced reactor technology receiving considerable international interest is a modular, passively-safe version of the high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), known in the U.S. as the Modular Helium Reactor (MHR), which operates at a power level of 600 MW(t). For electricity production, the MHR operates with an outlet helium temperature of 850 C to drive a direct, Brayton-cycle power-conversion system (PCS) with a thermal-to-electrical conversion efficiency of 48 percent. This concept is referred to as the Gas Turbine MHR (GT-MHR). For hydrogen production, the process heat from the MHR is used to produce hydrogen. This concept is referred to as the H2-MHR.

The high-temperature characteristics of the modular helium reactor (MHR) make it a strong candidate for producing hydrogen using either thermochemical or high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) processes. Using heat from the MHR to drive a sulfur-iodine (SI) thermochemical hydrogen production process has been the subject of a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored Nuclear Engineering Research Initiative (NERI) project led by General Atomics, with participation from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Texas A&M University. While the focus of much of the initial work was on the SI thermochemical production of hydrogen, recent activities included development of a preconceptual design for an integral HTE hydrogen production plant driven by the process heat and electricity produced by a 600 MW MHR.This paper describes ATHENA analyses performed to evaluate alternative primary system cooling configurations for the MHR to minimize peak reactor vessel and core temperatures while achieving core helium outlet temperatures in the range of 900-1000 degrees C that are needed for the efficient production of hydrogen using either the SI or HTE process. The cooling schemes investigated are intended to ensure peak fuel temperatures do not exceed specified limits under normal or transient upset conditions, and that reactor vessel temperatures do not exceed American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) code limits for steady-state or transient conditions using standard light water reactor vessel materials. Preconceptual designs for SI and HTE hydrogen production plants driven by one or more 600 MW MHRs at helium outlet temperatures in the range of 900-1000 degrees C are described and compared. An initial SAPHIRE model to evaluate the reliability, maintainability, and availability of the SI hydrogen production plant is also described. Finally, a preliminary flowsheet for a conceptual design of an HTE hydrogen production plant coupled to a 600 MW modular helium reactor is presented and discussed. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) prepared a functions and requirements (F&R) document for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) Project [1] The highest-level functions and requirements for the NGNP Project design are identified in the F&R document, which establishes performance definitions to be achieved by the NGNP. The requirements for the NGNP are based on the Generation IV roadmap [2] goals. Based on these requirements, NGNP designs will be developed by commercial vendor(s). Of the six most promising Generation IV nuclear energy systems, the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) is the nearest-term reactor concept that also has the capability to efficiently produce hydrogen. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected the VHTR as the concept to demonstrate the use of nuclear power for electricity and hydrogen production without greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reviews the NGNP Project and the selection of the VHTR, then presents the NGNP functions and requirements.

The SCDAP/RELAP5/ATHENA code was extended to enable the code to perform transient analyses of two leading candidates for the next generation of nuclear power plants, namely the Pebble Bed and Block-Type (prismatic) High Temperature Gas Reactors (PB-HTGRs and BT-HTGRs). Models in five areas of reactor behavior were implemented into the code. First, models were implemented to calculate the transfer of decay heat by conduction and radiation from the center of the heterogeneous cores of these reactors to their outer surfaces. Second, models were implemented to calculate the transfer of decay heat from the outer surfaces of these reactor cores to ultimate heat sinks such as the atmosphere. Third, models were implemented to calculate the flow losses and convective heat transfer in the core of a PB-HTGR. Fourth, models were implemented to calculate the oxidation of graphite due to the ingress of air. Fifth, a model was implemented to calculate the ingress of air into the reactor core by molecular diffusion from the point of break in the coolant system. The extended code was applied to the analysis of conduction cooldown accident in a BT-HTGR. The analysis indicated that the new models in SCDAP/RELAP5/ATHENA are properly interfaced with the previously developed and assessed fluid behavior models in the code. Preliminary results indicate that post-shutdown decay heat can be adequately removed from BT-HTGRs by natural circulation of air from the atmosphere.

The SCDAPIRELAP5-3D code was extended to enable the code to perform transient anaiyses of advanced LWRs (Light Water Reactors) and HTGRs (High Temperature Gas Reactors).The extensions for LWRs included: (1) representation of micro-heterogeneous fuel varying in composition in the radial and axial directions, (2) modeling of two-

The importance of nuclear energy as a vital and strategic resource in the U. S. and world’s energy supply mix has led to an initiative, termed Generation IV by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to develop and demonstrate new and improved reactor technologies. These new Generation IV reactor concepts are expected to be substantially improved over the current generation of reactors with respect to economics, safety, proliferation resistance and waste characteristics. Although a number of light water reactor concepts have been proposed as Generation IV candidates, the majority of proposed designs have fundamentally different characteristics than the current generation of commercial LWRs operating in the U.S. and other countries. This paper presents the results of a review of these new reactor technologies and defines the transient analyses required to support the evaluation and future development of the Generation IV concepts. The ultimate objective of this work is to identify and develop new capabilities needed by INEEL to support DOE’s Generation IV initiative. In particular, the focus of this study is on needed extensions or enhancements to SCDAP/RELAP5/3D code. This code and the RELAP5-3D code from which it evolved are the primary analysis tools used by the INEEL and others for the analysis of design-basis and beyond-design-basis accidents in current generation light water reactors.