Thermal hydraulic feasibility of supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle power conversion for the KALIMER-150 sodium-cooled fast reactor

One possible approach to achieving a significant reduction in the overnight and operating costs of a sodium-cooled fast reactor is to replace the traditional Rankine steam cycle with an advanced power converter that consists of a gas turbine Brayton cycle that utilizes supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) as the working fluid. A joint project between Argonne National Laboratory and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has been initiated to investigate the thermal-hydraulic feasibility of coupling the S-CO2 Brayton cycle to the KALIMAR-150 sodium-cooled fast reactor conceptual design. As an initial step in investigating the system aspects of coupling the reactor to the S-CO2 Brayton cycle, the case is investigated in which the intermediate heat transfer loop is eliminated in order to achieve additional cost reductions. The main objectives are to determine the potential gain in plant efficiency and to estimate the size of the key Brayton cycle components. A S-CO2 Brayton cycle efficiency of 43.2% is calculated. Accounting for primary pump power and other in-house loads, a net plant efficiency of 40.8% is obtained, compared to 38.2% for the current (Rankine cycle) plant. If higher Na temperatures could be accommodated, then a 1% gain in plant efficiency could be obtained for each 20degC incremental increase in sodium core outlet temperature. Further investigation of the thermal sizing of the Na/S-Co2 heat exchanger is also carried out; parametric sensitivity studies are performed for the case in which the intermediate heat transport system is retained as well as the case in which it is eliminated. (author)