Influence of Cooling Water Parameters on the Thermal Performance of the Secondary Circuit System of a Modular High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Nuclear Power Plant
Xin Wang,
Gang Zhao,
Xinhe Qu,
Xiaoyong Yang,
Jie Wang,
Peng Wang
Affiliations
Xin Wang
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Cooperation Innovation Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Gang Zhao
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Cooperation Innovation Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Xinhe Qu
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Cooperation Innovation Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Xiaoyong Yang
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Cooperation Innovation Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Jie Wang
Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Advanced Nuclear Energy Technology Cooperation Innovation Center, Key Laboratory of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Safety of Ministry of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Peng Wang
State Nuclear Electric Power Planning, Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd., Beijing 100095, China
This study quantitatively analysed the influence of cooling water parameters on the performance of a modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) nuclear power plant (NPP). The secondary circuit system and cold-end system were modelled using EBSILON software, version 16.0. The influence of cooling water inlet temperature and mass flow rate on the thermal performance of the secondary circuit system was analysed over the full power range with the goal of optimising net power. Under 100% rated condition, for each 1 °C increase in cooling water inlet temperature between 10 and 33 °C, the net power and cycle efficiency decreased by 0.67 MW and 0.14%, respectively, whereas the heat consumption rate increased by 28.72 kJ/(kW·h). The optimal cooling water mass flow rates corresponding to cooling water inlet temperatures of 16 °C and 33 °C were obtained. The optimal cooling water mass flow rate decreased nonlinearly with decreasing power levels. At a cooling water inlet temperature of 33 °C, an increase in cooling water mass flow rate from the designed value (7697.61 kg/s) to the optimal value (10,922.14 kg/s) resulted in a 1.03 MW increase in net power. These findings provide guidelines for MHTGR NPP operation optimisation and economic improvement, especially under high-temperature weather conditions.
