Supercritical Steam Cycle for Lead Cooled Nuclear Systems

ABSTARCT: Feasibility of a supercritical Rankine-Cycle is demonstrated for lead-cooled nuclear systems, e.g. for Accelerator Driven Systems or Lead-Cooled Fast Reactors. The comparison with a CO2-Brayton cycle, which has been considered to be used in a Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor of 400MWth, shows certain advantages in utilization of the supercritical Rankine cycle, especially in terms of significantly smaller mass flow rates and thus smaller sizes of components except the turbine, and even a slightly higher electrical efficiency (46%). A detailed cycle analysis, including a first design of an in-vessel lead-water heat exchanger is given together with its temperature distribution and a size estimate. A proven turbine design from combined cycle power plant showed to be applicable for this application.