Nuclear power plant design innovation through simplification

The concept of nuclear plant design simplification is explored with the goal of achieving useful results. Two schools of thought - performing numerous individual simplification exercises or developing a general methodology - are explained. The results of a study of eliminating the soluble poison control function in PWRs are reported. Design, reliability, safety, licensing, economics and alternative schemes are addressed but no conclusive answer is achieved. Given the inadequacies of this exercise, a comprehensive simplification process including criteria definition, proposal prioritization and specification, development of an analytical evaluation model, implementation and data requirements is proposed. The reported work demonstrates the complexity of the design simplification process but also provides a framework for furture progress. (orig./HP)