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67-629: OPEN100 was first announced in February 2020 by Bret Kugelmass and the Energy Impact Center (EIC) . Open-source blueprints for the construction of a nuclear power plant were uploaded to the project's website soon after the announcement. Those blueprints contained designs for a power plant with a 100-megawatt pressurized water reactor . The OPEN100 plans aim to standardize nuclear power plant construction to increase speed and cost-effectiveness, allowing plants to be built in under two years for

134-441: A boiling water reactor (BWR), pressure in the primary coolant loop prevents the water from boiling within the reactor. All light-water reactors use ordinary water as both coolant and neutron moderator . Most use anywhere from two to four vertically mounted steam generators; VVER reactors use horizontal steam generators. PWRs were originally designed to serve as nuclear marine propulsion for nuclear submarines and were used in

201-442: A (partially) closed nuclear fuel cycle . Water is a nontoxic, transparent, chemically unreactive (by comparison with e.g. NaK ) coolant that is liquid at room temperature which makes visual inspection and maintenance easier. It is also easy and cheap to obtain unlike heavy water or even nuclear graphite . Compared to reactors operating on natural uranium , PWRs can achieve a relatively high burnup . A typical PWR will exchange

268-479: A CANDU reactor or any other heavy water reactor when ordinary light water is supplied to the reactor as an emergency coolant. Depending on burnup , boric acid or another neutron poison will have to be added to emergency coolant to avoid a criticality accident . PWRs are designed to be maintained in an undermoderated state, meaning that there is room for increased water volume or density to further increase moderation, because if moderation were near saturation, then

335-736: A Department of the Army Approved Qualitative Materiel Development Objective for Nuclear Power Plants, dated 7 January 1965, these objectives were stated for the program: The AEC ultimately concluded that the probability of achieving the objectives of the Army Nuclear Power Program in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost was not high enough to justify continued funding of its portion of projects to develop small, stationary, and mobile reactors. Cutbacks in military funding for long-range research and development because of

402-465: A PWR cannot exceed a temperature of 647 K (374 °C; 705 °F) or a pressure of 22.064 MPa (3200 psi or 218 atm), because those are the critical point of water. Supercritical water reactors are (as of 2022) only a proposed concept in which the coolant would never leave the supercritical state. However, as this requires even higher pressures than a PWR and can cause issues of corrosion, so far no such reactor has been built. Pressure in

469-405: A PWR design. Nuclear fuel in the reactor pressure vessel is engaged in a controlled fission chain reaction , which produces heat, heating the water in the primary coolant loop by thermal conduction through the fuel cladding. The hot primary coolant is pumped into a heat exchanger called the steam generator , where it flows through several thousand small tubes. Heat is transferred through

536-475: A PWR is not suitable for most industrial applications as those require temperatures in excess of 400 °C (752 °F). Radiolysis and certain accident scenarios which involve interactions between hot steam and zircalloy cladding can produce hydrogen from the cooling water leading to hydrogen explosions as a potential accident scenario. During the Fukushima nuclear accident a hydrogen explosion damaging

603-459: A PWR. It can, however, be used in a CANDU with only minimal reprocessing in a process called "DUPIC" - Direct Use of spent PWR fuel in CANDU. Thermal efficiency , while better than for boiling water reactors , cannot achieve the values of reactors with higher operating temperatures such as those cooled with high temperature gases, liquid metals or molten salts. Similarly process heat drawn from

670-582: A cost of $ 300 million. New plant construction would likely face regulatory hurdles in practice, however. The EIC developed the plan in collaboration with the United States Department of Energy national laboratories and other entities to help increase nuclear power capacity 100-fold by 2040 in an effort to curb and reverse the effects of climate change. In July 2021, it was announced that Transcorp Energy in Nigeria would begin implementing

737-656: A given temperature set by the position of the control rods. In contrast, the Soviet RBMK reactor design used at Chernobyl, which uses graphite instead of water as the moderator and uses boiling water as the coolant, has a large positive thermal coefficient of reactivity. This means reactivity and heat generation increases when coolant and fuel temperatures increase, which makes the RBMK design less stable than pressurized water reactors at high operating temperature. In addition to its property of slowing down neutrons when serving as

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804-444: A heavy pressure vessel and hence increases construction costs. The higher pressure can increase the consequences of a loss-of-coolant accident . The reactor pressure vessel is manufactured from ductile steel but, as the plant is operated, neutron flux from the reactor causes this steel to become less ductile. Eventually the ductility of the steel will reach limits determined by the applicable boiler and pressure vessel standards, and

871-426: A moderator). The pressure in the primary coolant loop is typically 15–16 megapascals (150–160  bar ), which is notably higher than in other nuclear reactors , and nearly twice that of a boiling water reactor (BWR). As an effect of this, only localized boiling occurs and steam will recondense promptly in the bulk fluid. By contrast, in a boiling water reactor the primary coolant is designed to boil. Light water

938-423: A moderator, water also has a property of absorbing neutrons, albeit to a lesser degree. When the coolant water temperature increases, the boiling increases, which creates voids. Thus there is less water to absorb thermal neutrons that have already been slowed by the graphite moderator, causing an increase in reactivity. This property is called the void coefficient of reactivity, and in an RBMK reactor like Chernobyl,

1005-562: A pressurized water reactor (although the first power plant connected to the grid was at Obninsk , USSR), on insistence from Admiral Hyman G. Rickover that a viable commercial plant would include none of the "crazy thermodynamic cycles that everyone else wants to build". The United States Army Nuclear Power Program operated pressurized water reactors from 1954 to 1974. Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station initially operated two pressurized water reactor plants, TMI-1 and TMI-2. The partial meltdown of TMI-2 in 1979 essentially ended

1072-542: A quarter to a third of its fuel load every 18-24 months and have maintenance and inspection, that requires the reactor to be shut down, scheduled for this window. While more uranium ore is consumed per unit of electricity produced than in a natural uranium fueled reactor, the amount of spent fuel is less with the balance being depleted uranium whose radiological danger is lower than that of natural uranium. The coolant water must be highly pressurized to remain liquid at high temperatures. This requires high strength piping and

1139-469: A reduction in density of the moderator/coolant could reduce neutron absorption significantly while reducing moderation only slightly, making the void coefficient positive. Also, light water is actually a somewhat stronger moderator of neutrons than heavy water, though heavy water's neutron absorption is much lower. Because of these two facts, light water reactors have a relatively small moderator volume and therefore have compact cores. One next generation design,

1206-517: A renewed interest in military applications. There was interest in the possible application of nuclear power to land-based military needs as early as 1952. A memo from the Secretary of Defense , dated 10 February 1954, assigned the Army the responsibility for "developing nuclear power plants to supply heat and electricity at remote and relatively inaccessible military installations." The Secretary of

1273-420: A shaft used for propulsion . Direct mechanical action by expansion of the steam can be used for a steam-powered aircraft catapult or similar applications. District heating by the steam is used in some countries and direct heating is applied to internal plant applications. Two things are characteristic for the pressurized water reactor (PWR) when compared with other reactor types: coolant loop separation from

1340-402: Is generated per unit of uranium ore even though a higher burnup can be achieved. Nuclear reprocessing can "stretch" the fuel supply of both natural uranium and enriched uranium reactors but is virtually only practiced for light water reactors operating with lightly enriched fuel as spent fuel from e.g. CANDU reactors is very low in fissile material. Because water acts as a neutron moderator, it

1407-432: Is more dense (more collisions will occur). The use of water as a moderator is an important safety feature of PWRs, as an increase in temperature may cause the water to expand, giving greater 'gaps' between the water molecules and reducing the probability of thermalization — thereby reducing the extent to which neutrons are slowed and hence reducing the reactivity in the reactor. Therefore, if reactivity increases beyond normal,

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1474-401: Is not possible to build a fast-neutron reactor with a PWR design. A reduced moderation water reactor may however achieve a breeding ratio greater than unity, though this reactor design has disadvantages of its own. Spent fuel from a PWR usually has a higher content of fissile material than natural uranium. Without nuclear reprocessing , this fissile material cannot be used as fuel in

1541-527: Is on an 18–24 month cycle. Approximately one third of the core is replaced each refueling, though some more modern refueling schemes may reduce refuel time to a few days and allow refueling to occur on a shorter periodicity. In PWRs reactor power can be viewed as following steam (turbine) demand due to the reactivity feedback of the temperature change caused by increased or decreased steam flow. (See: Negative temperature coefficient .) Boron and cadmium control rods are used to maintain primary system temperature at

1608-465: Is used as the primary coolant in a PWR. Water enters through the bottom of the reactor's core at about 548  K (275 °C; 527 °F) and is heated as it flows upwards through the reactor core to a temperature of about 588 K (315 °C; 599 °F). The water remains liquid despite the high temperature due to the high pressure in the primary coolant loop, usually around 155 bar (15.5  MPa 153  atm , 2,250  psi ). The water in

1675-723: The Department of Defense to obtain special nuclear material for use in defense utilization facilities. The focus of the Army Nuclear Power Program was on power production facilities while the Naval Reactors Program concentrated on nuclear propulsion for submarines and ships. On 9 April 1954 the Chief of Engineers established the US Army Engineer Reactors Group to perform the missions assigned by DA. Essentially, these missions were to: In

1742-789: The gallery of photos in the next section. Sources for this data include the only known book on the ANPP, by Suid, and a DOE document. In 1961, after the SL-1 plant explosion, General Alvin Luedecke , the General Manager of the AEC, temporarily prevented the startup of the PM-2A until an interlock could be installed on the central control rod. While the interlock could be operated by personnel, General Luedecke would have to be notified first. The PM-2A

1809-452: The supercritical water reactor , is even less moderated. A less moderated neutron energy spectrum does worsen the capture/fission ratio for U and especially Pu, meaning that more fissile nuclei fail to fission on neutron absorption and instead capture the neutron to become a heavier nonfissile isotope, wasting one or more neutrons and increasing accumulation of heavy transuranic actinides, some of which have long half-lives. After enrichment,

1876-531: The uranium dioxide ( UO 2 ) powder is fired in a high-temperature, sintering furnace to create hard, ceramic pellets of enriched uranium dioxide. The cylindrical pellets are then clad in a corrosion-resistant zirconium metal alloy Zircaloy which are backfilled with helium to aid heat conduction and detect leakages. Zircaloy is chosen because of its mechanical properties and its low absorption cross section. The finished fuel rods are grouped in fuel assemblies, called fuel bundles, that are then used to build

1943-679: The Army established the Army Nuclear Power Program and assigned it to the Corps of Engineers . The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 made the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) responsible for R&D in the nuclear field, so that the ANPP then became a joint interagency 'activity' of the Department of the Army (DA) and the AEC. When the Atomic Energy Act was revised in 1954, Paragraph 91b authorized

2010-701: The DOE document, the Suid book, and the Briefing Book. The Nuclear Power Plant Operator Course (NPPOC) was conducted at Ft. Belvoir. Applicants for the program were enlisted men who had to commit to serving a minimum of two years after completion of training. The requirements for admission to the NPPOC included aptitude test scores at least as stringent as those required for admission to Officer Candidate School. Over 1,000 Nuclear Power Plant operators were licensed between

2077-491: The OPEN100 model to build the country's first nuclear power plants. This article about nuclear power and nuclear reactors for power generation is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor ( PWR ) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor . PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being

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2144-495: The UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant ( water ) is pumped under high pressure to the reactor core where it is heated by the energy released by the fission of atoms. The heated, high pressure water then flows to a steam generator , where it transfers its thermal energy to lower pressure water of a secondary system where steam is generated. The steam then drives turbines, which spin an electric generator. In contrast to

2211-613: The US, they were originally designed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for use as a nuclear submarine power plant with a fully operational submarine power plant located at the Idaho National Laboratory . Follow-on work was conducted by Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory . The first purely commercial nuclear power plant at Shippingport Atomic Power Station was originally designed as

2278-530: The Vietnam War led the AEC to phase out its support of the program in 1966. The costs of developing and producing compact nuclear power plants were so high that they could be justified only if the reactor had a unique capability and filled a clearly defined objective backed by DOD. After that, the Army's participation in nuclear power plant research and development efforts steadily declined and eventually stopped altogether. Eight plants were constructed. Due to

2345-402: The containment building was a major concern, though the reactors at the plant were BWRs , which owing to the steam at the top of the pressure vessel by design carry a greater risk of this happening. Some reactors contain catalytic recombiners which let the hydrogen react with ambient oxygen in a non-explosive fashion. Army Nuclear Power Program The Army Nuclear Power Program ( ANPP )

2412-426: The core of the reactor. A typical PWR has fuel assemblies of 200 to 300 rods each, and a large reactor would have about 150–250 such assemblies with 80–100 tons of uranium in all. Generally, the fuel bundles consist of fuel rods bundled 14 × 14 to 17 × 17. A PWR produces on the order of 900 to 1,600 MW e . PWR fuel bundles are about 4 meters in length. Refuelings for most commercial PWRs

2479-544: The desired point. In order to decrease power, the operator throttles shut turbine inlet valves. This would result in less steam being drawn from the steam generators. This results in the primary loop increasing in temperature. The higher temperature causes the density of the primary reactor coolant water to decrease, allowing higher neutron speeds, thus less fission and decreased power output. This decrease of power will eventually result in primary system temperature returning to its previous steady-state value. The operator can control

2546-399: The fast fission neutrons to be slowed (a process called moderation or thermalizing) in order to interact with the nuclear fuel and sustain the chain reaction. In PWRs the coolant water is used as a moderator by letting the neutrons undergo multiple collisions with light hydrogen atoms in the water, losing speed in the process. This "moderating" of neutrons will happen more often when the water

2613-559: The flawed RBMK control rods design. These design flaws, in addition to operator errors that pushed the reactor to its limits, are generally seen as the causes of the Chernobyl disaster . The Canadian CANDU heavy water reactor design have a slight positive void coefficient, these reactors mitigate this issues with a number of built-in advanced passive safety systems not found in the Soviet RBMK design. No criticality could occur in

2680-578: The growth in new construction of nuclear power plants in the United States for two decades. Watts Bar unit 2 (a Westinghouse 4-loop PWR) came online in 2016, becoming the first new nuclear reactor in the United States since 1996. The pressurized water reactor has several new Generation III reactor evolutionary designs: the AP1000 , VVER-1200, ACPR1000+, APR1400, Hualong One , IPWR-900 and EPR . The first AP1000 and EPR reactors were connected to

2747-460: The heaters or emptying the pressurizer. Pressure transients in the primary coolant system manifest as temperature transients in the pressurizer and are controlled through the use of automatic heaters and water spray, which raise and lower pressurizer temperature, respectively. The coolant is pumped around the primary circuit by powerful pumps. These pumps have a rate of ~100,000 gallons of coolant per minute. After picking up heat as it passes through

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2814-518: The most deployed type of reactor globally, allowing for a wide range of suppliers of new plants and parts for existing plants. Due to long experience with their operation they are the closest thing to mature technology that exists in nuclear energy. PWRs - depending on type - can be fueled with MOX-fuel and/or the Russian Remix Fuel (which has a lower Pu and a higher U content than "regular" U/Pu MOX-fuel) allowing for

2881-430: The neutron activity correspondingly. An entire control system involving high pressure pumps (usually called the charging and letdown system) is required to remove water from the high pressure primary loop and re-inject the water back in with differing concentrations of boric acid. The reactor control rods, inserted through the reactor vessel head directly into the fuel bundles, are moved for the following reasons: to start up

2948-480: The nucleus of a boron-10 atom which subsequently splits into a lithium-7 and tritium atom. Pressurized water reactors annually emit several hundred curies of tritium to the environment as part of normal operation. Natural uranium is only 0.7% uranium-235, the isotope necessary for thermal reactors. This makes it necessary to enrich the uranium fuel, which significantly increases the costs of fuel production. Compared to reactors operating on natural uranium, less energy

3015-544: The original design of the second commercial power plant at Shippingport Atomic Power Station . PWRs currently operating in the United States are considered Generation II reactors . Russia's VVER reactors are similar to US PWRs, but the VVER-1200 is not considered Generation II (see below). France operates many PWRs to generate the bulk of its electricity. Several hundred PWRs are used for marine propulsion in aircraft carriers , nuclear submarines and ice breakers . In

3082-596: The power grid in China in 2018. In 2020, NuScale Power became the first U.S. company to receive regulatory approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a small modular reactor with a modified PWR design. Also in 2020, the Energy Impact Center introduced the OPEN100 project, which published open-source blueprints for the construction of a 100 MW electric nuclear power plant with

3149-432: The pressure drop across the turbine, and hence the energy extracted from the steam, is maximized. Before being fed into the steam generator, the condensed steam (referred to as feedwater) is sometimes preheated in order to minimize thermal shock. The steam generated has other uses besides power generation. In nuclear ships and submarines, the steam is fed through a steam turbine connected to a set of speed reduction gears to

3216-518: The pressure vessel must be repaired or replaced. This might not be practical or economic, and so determines the life of the plant. Additional high pressure components such as reactor coolant pumps, pressurizer, and steam generators are also needed. This also increases the capital cost and complexity of a PWR power plant. The high temperature water coolant with boric acid dissolved in it is corrosive to carbon steel (but not stainless steel ); this can cause radioactive corrosion products to circulate in

3283-419: The pressurized steam is fed through a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator connected to the electric grid for transmission. After passing through the turbine the secondary coolant (water-steam mixture) is cooled down and condensed in a condenser . The condenser converts the steam to a liquid so that it can be pumped back into the steam generator, and maintains a vacuum at the turbine outlet so that

3350-414: The pressurizer temperature and the highest temperature in the reactor core) of 30 °C (54 °F). As 345 °C is the boiling point of water at 155 bar, the liquid water is at the edge of a phase change. Thermal transients in the reactor coolant system result in large swings in pressurizer liquid/steam volume, and total pressurizer volume is designed around absorbing these transients without uncovering

3417-441: The primary circuit is maintained by a pressurizer, a separate vessel that is connected to the primary circuit and partially filled with water which is heated to the saturation temperature (boiling point) for the desired pressure by submerged electrical heaters. To achieve a pressure of 155 bars (15.5 MPa), the pressurizer temperature is maintained at 345 °C (653 °F), which gives a subcooling margin (the difference between

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3484-423: The primary coolant loop. This not only limits the lifetime of the reactor, but the systems that filter out the corrosion products and adjust the boric acid concentration add significantly to the overall cost of the reactor and to radiation exposure. In one instance, this has resulted in severe corrosion to control rod drive mechanisms when the boric acid solution leaked through the seal between the mechanism itself and

3551-406: The primary system. Due to the requirement to load a pressurized water reactor's primary coolant loop with boron, undesirable radioactive secondary tritium production in the water is over 25 times greater than in boiling water reactors of similar power, owing to the latter's absence of the neutron moderating element in its coolant loop. The tritium is created by the absorption of a fast neutron in

3618-432: The reactor coolant and control the reactor power by adjusting the reactor coolant flow rate. PWR reactors are very stable due to their tendency to produce less power as temperatures increase; this makes the reactor easier to operate from a stability standpoint. PWR turbine cycle loop is separate from the primary loop, so the water in the secondary loop is not contaminated by radioactive materials. PWRs can passively scram

3685-455: The reactor core, the primary coolant transfers heat in a steam generator to water in a lower pressure secondary circuit, evaporating the secondary coolant to saturated steam — in most designs 6.2 MPa (60 atm, 900  psia ), 275 °C (530 °F) — for use in the steam turbine. The cooled primary coolant is then returned to the reactor vessel to be heated again. Pressurized water reactors, like all thermal reactor designs, require

3752-403: The reactor in case offsite power is lost to immediately stop the primary nuclear reaction. The control rods are held by electromagnets and fall by gravity when current is lost; full insertion safely shuts down the primary nuclear reaction. PWR technology is favoured by nations seeking to develop a nuclear navy; the compact reactors fit well in nuclear submarines and other nuclear ships. PWRs are

3819-428: The reactor, to shut down the primary nuclear reactions in the reactor, to accommodate short term transients, such as changes to load on the turbine, The control rods can also be used to compensate for nuclear poison inventory and to compensate for nuclear fuel depletion. However, these effects are more usually accommodated by altering the primary coolant boric acid concentration. In contrast, BWRs have no boron in

3886-431: The reduced moderation of neutrons will cause the chain reaction to slow down, producing less heat. This property, known as the negative temperature coefficient of reactivity, makes PWR reactors very stable. This process is referred to as 'Self-Regulating', i.e. the hotter the coolant becomes, the less reactive the plant becomes, shutting itself down slightly to compensate and vice versa. Thus the plant controls itself around

3953-643: The requirement for a small physical size, all these reactors other than the MH-1A used highly enriched uranium ( HEU ). The MH-1A had more space to work with, and more weight-carrying capacity, so this was a low-enrichment reactor; i.e., larger and heavier. The MH-1A was briefly considered for use in Vietnam, but the idea of anything nuclear in Vietnam was quickly rejected by the State Department. The plants are listed in order of their initial criticality. See

4020-426: The steady state operating temperature by addition of boric acid and/or movement of control rods. Reactivity adjustment to maintain 100% power as the fuel is burned up in most commercial PWRs is normally achieved by varying the concentration of boric acid dissolved in the primary reactor coolant. Boron readily absorbs neutrons and increasing or decreasing its concentration in the reactor coolant will therefore affect

4087-427: The steam system and pressure inside the primary coolant loop. In a PWR, there are two separate coolant loops (primary and secondary), which are both filled with demineralized/deionized water. A boiling water reactor, by contrast, has only one coolant loop, while more exotic designs such as breeder reactors use substances other than water for coolant and moderator (e.g. sodium in its liquid state as coolant or graphite as

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4154-409: The void coefficient is positive, and fairly large, making it very hard to regulate when the reaction begins to run away. The RBMK reactors also have a flawed control rods design in which during rapid scrams, the graphite reaction enhancement tips of the rods would displace water at the bottom of the reactor and locally increase reactivity there. This is called the "positive scram effect" that is unique to

4221-414: The walls of these tubes to the lower pressure secondary coolant located on the shell side of the exchanger where the secondary coolant evaporates to pressurized steam. This transfer of heat is accomplished without mixing the two fluids to prevent the secondary coolant from becoming radioactive. Some common steam generator arrangements are u-tubes or single pass heat exchangers. In a nuclear power station,

4288-471: Was a program of the United States Army to develop small pressurized water and boiling water nuclear power reactors to generate electrical and space-heating energy primarily at remote, relatively inaccessible sites. The ANPP had several accomplishments, but ultimately it was considered to be "a solution in search of a problem." The U.S. Army Engineer Reactors Group managed this program and it

4355-475: Was also used to investigate neutron embrittlement in carbon steel. This plant was shut down 1963–1964. However despite the reactor's successes, Project Iceworm was never fielded and Camp Century was later abandoned. Key to the codes: Of the eight built, six produced operationally useful power for an extended period. Many of the designs were based on United States Naval reactors , which were proven compact reactor designs. References for this list include

4422-512: Was headquartered at Fort Belvoir , Virginia . The program began in 1954 as the Army Reactors Branch and had effectively terminated by about 1977, with the last class of NPP operators graduating in 1977. Work continued for some time thereafter either for decommissioning of the plants or placing them into SAFSTOR (long term storage and monitoring before decommissioning) . The current development of small modular reactors has led to

4489-524: Was the only reactor besides SL-1 that had a central control rod that could startup the reactor on its own. We gave explicit instructions on the 8th of January that this reactor, which was shut down at the time, would not be started until we had reviewed the situation. It was necessary for us to issue instructions to modify mechanisms of the PM-2A so that no single rod could be raised to a point where criticality could automatically occur. PM-2A successfully powered Camp Century for three years. The pressure vessel

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