Efficiency Upgrade in PWRs
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Abstract
Most of the light water reactor power plants now operating or under construction use pressurized-water reactor (PWR). They are suffering of relatively low thermal efficiency which is around 33%. This would not only have a negative impact economically but also incurs environmental burden in terms of thermal pollution. In this paper, nuclear steam supply system of a typical PWR has been taken into consideration using 1000 MW<sub>e</sub> Bushehr nuclear power plant (BNPP) data. It is shown thermal efficiency could conceivably be increased by superheating live steam with natural gas up to around 40%, competing with similar fossil-fueled power plants. It is further shown that fuel cost (natural gas) as low as 0.12 Cent/MW<sub>e</sub>, extra power generated is feasible.
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