I think if small modular reactors are to take off (and I may be jaded, but probably not in the US*) then there will be needed not for electricity but for process heat applications, as LWR's (light water reactors) cannot reach those temperatures. I looked into using a high temperature gas reactor (~700 C and above) to produce hydrogen. The system I tried to model is below, as well as the simulink models that worked.
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| Image from INL. |
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| Implemented HTR-10 |
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| Implemented Fuel Cell |
Originally I wanted to the steam generator / helical intermediate heat exchanger, but it turned out that I had algebraic loops which made my simulation very slow and not converge. In any case, I thought it was really nifty.
*In order to get an AP1000 built Westinghouse had to first start construction in China. And while some site preparations are underway in the US (Vogtle and Bellefonte), the ones in China are much farther along because of the regulations (we also had to give them the technology to make the fuel - which is currently made in only 1 spot in the US). As regulations don't exist for SMR's this is a very big question for US implementation.
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