Open AccessFUEL CYCLE IMPLICATIONS OF DEPLOYING HTGRS IN HYBRID ENERGY SYSTEMS AS RESERVE POWER GENERATION IN ONTARIO
Author(s) -
Daniel Wojtaszek,
S. Golesorkhi
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
cnl nuclear review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2369-6931
pISSN - 2369-6923
DOI - 10.12943/cnr.2020.00002
Subject(s) - software deployment , environmental science , nuclear power , enriched uranium , nuclear fuel cycle , fuel cycle , electricity generation , uranium , resource (disambiguation) , electricity , waste management , natural uranium , nuclear engineering , environmental economics , computer science , engineering , power (physics) , physics , nuclear physics , computer network , electrical engineering , quantum mechanics , economics , operating system
Nuclear power plants could potentially be deployed in a type of nuclear hybrid energy system (NHES) in which their power is used primarily to drive an industrial process but can be diverted to meet demands for electricity when needed. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of deploying NHESs as reserve power for the transmission grid in Ontario on the overall Canadian fuel cycle. In this scenario, the fuel cycle demands of 2 high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) concepts are analyzed with respect to costs, resource consumption, and enrichment requirements. One HTGR concept is a 30 MW-thermal (MW th ) reactor that is based on the UBattery concept, and the other is the Xe-100, which is a 200 MW th reactor. Calculations indicate that such a deployment of HTGRs would have a substantial effect on the fuel cycle in Canada. In particular, NU and enrichment demands would be greatly affected. Beginning this HTGR deployment in the year 2030 would more than double the annual NU demands in Canada, and deplete the uranium resources with extraction costs of 35% of the US capacity for uranium enrichment.