Analysis of Heat Balance on Innovative-Simplified Nuclear Power Plant Using Multi-Stage Steam Injectors

The total space and weight of the feedwater heaters in a nuclear power plant (NPP) can be reduced by replacing low-pressure feedwater heaters with high-efficiency steam injectors (SIs). The SI works as a direct heat exchanger between feedwater from condensers and steam extracted from turbines. It can attain pressures higher than the supplied steam pressure. The maintenance cost is lower than that of the current feedwater heater because of its simplified system without movable parts. In this paper, we explain the observed mechanisms of the SI experimentally and the analysis of the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). We then describe mainly the analysis of the heat balance and plant efficiency of the innovative-simplified NPP, which adapted to the boiling water reactor (BWR) with the high-efficiency SI. The plant efficiencies of this innovative-simplified BWR with SI are compared with those of a 1100MWe-class BWR. The SI model is adopted in the heat balance simulator as a simplified model. The results show that the plant efficiencies of the innovate-simplified BWR with SI are almost equal to those of the original BWR. They show that the plant efficiency would be slightly higher if the low-pressure steam, which is extracted from the low-pressure turbine, is used because the first-stage of the SI uses very low pressure.