The Nuclear Gas Turbine: A Perspective on a Long-Term Advanced Technology HTGR Plant Option

Design studies and assessments were carried out in the 1970s on an advanced, direct-cycle high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) option. These led to conclusions in 1980 that an extensive development effort was necessary to establish a technically viable gas turbine HTGR (HTGR-GT) plant to satisfy demanding safety and licensing criteria and that further design innovation was necessary to identify plant features for improved economics. The steam cycle HTGR was designated as the lead plant and the HTGR-GT classed as a long-term, advanced technology, second-generation HTGR plant option. With the necessary development, a dry-cooled gas turbine plant with a reactor outlet temperature of approximately 950°C, operating in a combined cycle mode or cogeneration mode, could be realized. This paper reviews the status of the Brayton cycle plant and gives a perspective on the HTGR-GT plant as a follow-on option to the steam Rankine cycle lead plant.