Development of...Continued from page 36also under construction in China atTaishan, Units 1 and 2. Areva’s U.S. EPRdesign is currently being reviewed bythe US <strong>Nuclear</strong> Regulatory Commission(US NRC) for design certification in theUnited States, and by the UK HSE forGeneric Design Assessment (GDA) in theUnited Kingdom AREVA is also workingwith Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, Ltd in ajoint venture to develop the 1100+ MWeATMEA-1 Pressurized Water Reactor,and is working with several Europeanutilities to develop the 1250+ MWeKERENA Boiling Water Reactor.In Japan, the benefits of standardizationand series construction are beingrealized with the large-size ABWR unitsdesigned by General Electric, HitachiLtd, and Toshiba Corp. Two ABWRs areunder construction in Taiwan, China, andseveral have been proposed for constructionin the United States.Also in Japan, Mitsubishi HeavyIndustries (MHI) has developed theadvanced pressurized water reactor(APWR+), which is a larger version of thelarge advanced PWR designed by MHIand Westinghouse for the Tsuruga-3 and4 units. MHI has submitted a US versionof the APWR, the US APWR to the USNRC for design certification. A Europeanversion of the APWR, the EU-APWR,is currently under evaluation against theEuropean Utility Requirements (EUR).With the goals of sustainable energythrough high conversion (a conversionratio equal to or beyond 1.0) of fertileisotopes to fissile isotopes, Hitachi Ltd.is developing in Japan the large-size,reduced moderation Resource-RenewableBWR (RBWR) and JAEA is developingthe large-size Reduced Moderation WaterReactor (RMWR).In the Republic of Korea, the benefitsof standardization and series constructionare being realized with the 1000 MWeKorean Standard <strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Plant</strong>s (KSNPs).Ten KSNPs are in commercial operation.The accumulated experience has beenused by Korea Hydro and <strong>Nuclear</strong>Power (KHNP) to develop an improvedversion, the 1000 MWe Optimized PowerReactor (OPR), of which four units areunder construction in Shin-Kori 1 and2 and Shin Wolsong 1 and 2 with gridconnection scheduled between 2010 and2012.KHNP’s Advanced Power ReactorAPR-1400 builds on the KSNPexperience with a higher power levelto capture economies of scale. The firstAPR-1400 unit is under construction atShin-Kori 3. Activities are underway inthe Republic of Korea to design an APR+of approximately 1500 MWe, with thegoal to complete the standard design by2012.In the Russian Federationevolutionary WWER plants have beendesigned building on the experiencefrom currently operating WWER-1000plants. WWER-1000 units are currentlyunder construction at the Kalinin andVolgodonsk sites and WWER-1200 at theNovovoronezh-2 and Leningrad-2 site.Additional WWER-1200 units are plannedby 2020 at Novovoronezh, Leningrad,Volgodon, Kursk, Smolensk and Kola.A WWER-1000 evolutionary unit willbe constructed in Belene, Bulgaria usingsome features of AES-2006 design basis.Two evolutionary WWER-1000 unitswere connected to the grid at Tianwan,China and the construction of anotherWWER-1000 unit is underway in theIslamic Republic of Iran.In the USA, designs for a largeAPWR (the Combustion EngineeringSystem 80+) and a large ABWR (GeneralElectric’s ABWR) were certified bythe USNRC in 1997. Westinghouse’smid-size AP-600 design with passivesafety systems was certified in 1999.Westinghouse has developed the AP-1000applying the passive safety technologydeveloped for the AP-600 with the goal ofreducing capital costs through economiesof-scale.In February 2006, the AP-1000received design certification from theUSNRC, and an amendment is presentlyunder review by the US NRC.General Electric is designing the largeEconomical Simplified BWR (ESBWR),applying economies of scale and modularpassive system technology. The ESBWRis currently in the design certificationreview phase with the US NRC.A prototype or a demonstration plantwill most likely be required for the supercriticalwater cooled systems, whichhave been selected for development bythe Generation-IV International Forum(GIF). In a supercritical system, the reactoroperates above the critical point ofwater (22.4 MPa and 374°C) resultingin higher thermal efficiency than currentLWRs and HWRs. Thermal efficienciesof 40-45% are projected with simplifiedplant designs. The large-size thermodynamicallysuper-critical water-cooled reactorconcept being developed by Toshiba,Hitachi and the University of Tokyois an example. The European Commissionis supporting the High PerformanceLight Water Reactor (HP-LWR) projectfor a thermodynamically supercriticalLWR. Activities on thermodynamicallysuper-critical concepts are also ongoingat universities, research centres and designorganizations in Canada, USA, Japan,Germany, India, Republic of Korea,Russia, China and the Ukraine.Heavy water reactorsIn Canada, Atomic Energy ofCanada Ltd. (AECL) is working on theEnhanced CANDU 6 (EC6) conceptbased on the latest CANDU 6 plant builtin Qinshan, China that has been updatedto meet the latest codes and standardsand incorporates the latest regulatoryrequirements. AECL is also developingthe large-size, evolutionary AdvancedCANDU Reactor, the ACR-1000, usingslightly enriched uranium and light watercoolant and incorporating improvementsderived from research and developmentconducted in recent decades. Also, asa part of the GIF initiative, AECL isdeveloping an innovative pressure tubereactor design with heavy water moderatorand supercritical light-water coolant.In India, a process of evolution ofHWR design has been carried out sincethe Rajasthan 1 and 2 projects. India’s540 MWe HWR design incorporatesfeedback from the indigenously designed220 MWe units, and in September 2005and August 2006 the two 540 MWe unitsat Tarapur began commercial operation.India is also designing an evolutionary700 MWe HWR, and a 300 MWeAdvanced Heavy Water Reactor usingheavy water moderation with boilinglight water coolant in vertical pressuretubes, optimized for utilization ofthorium, and with passive safety systems.Research is also underway on heavy38 www.<strong>Nuclear</strong><strong>Plant</strong><strong>Journal</strong>.com <strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Plant</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>, September-October 2009
water moderated, pressure tube designswith thermodynamically supercriticalwater coolant.Gas-cooled reactors(GCRs)The experience of 50 years in theoperation of gas cooled reactors forelectricity generation, mostly in theUnited Kingdom, is currently being usedtowards their potential use in processesrequiring high temperatures like hydrogengeneration, enhancing coal gasification,oil recovery in tar sands etc. In severalcountries, prototype and demonstrationGCR plants with helium coolant using theRankine steam cycle for electric powergeneration have been built and operated.Currently, two helium-cooled test reactorsare in operation: the High-TemperatureEngineering Test Reactor (HTTR) at theJAEA in Japan and the HTR-10 at theInstitute of <strong>Nuclear</strong> Energy Technologyin China.The USA, China and South Africaare currently the leading countries in thequest to deploy a high temperature reactorby 2018. Whilst China’s HTRs are gearedtowards electricity production, SouthAfrica’s and the United States’ designsare more focused on the cogenerationmarket, mainly process heat.China is developing the modularHTR-PM, with each module having acapacity of 250 MWt/100 MWe. It isa high temperature gas cooled reactorwith pebble bed fuel and an indirectsupercritical steam energy conversioncycle. Demonstration of a full sizemodule is planned for 2013. A licenseapplication has been filed and is underreview. A two-module plant configurationis foreseen for the commercial version ofthis reactor, yielding an electric output of200 MWe.In South Africa, the 165 MW(e)pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR), ahigh temperature gas cooled reactor withpebble bed fuel originally employinga direct gas turbine Brayton cycle, hasundergone a design strategy change. Itwill now be implemented first with anindirect steam power conversion cycle. Itsdemonstration at full size is still scheduledby 2014, and future configurations willinclude 4 and 8-module plants.Brayton cycle turbomachinery,which would be incorporated in the futuremodifications of this design, is underdevelopment in the Russian Federationby OKBM.Collaboration is underway betweenthe USA and Russia on a Gas TurbineModular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR)small reactor concept for destruction ofweapons grade plutonium in conjunctionwith electricity production. Other smallhelium-cooled reactor concepts are beingdeveloped by JAEA and Fuji Electricin Japan, and the <strong>Nuclear</strong> Research& Consultancy Group (NRG) in theNetherlands.Small and Medium SizedReactorsSeveral small and medium sizedwater cooled designs are of the integraltype with the steam generator, pressurizerand, in some cases, control rod driveshoused in the same vessel as the reactorcore to eliminate primary system piping,(Continued on page 40)<strong>Nuclear</strong> <strong>Plant</strong> <strong>Journal</strong>, September-October 2009 www.<strong>Nuclear</strong><strong>Plant</strong><strong>Journal</strong>.com 39
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