NUCLEAR POWER AND ELECTRIC GRID RESILIENCE: CURRENT REALITIES AND FUTURE PROSPECTS

Life as we know it in modern society relies on the smooth functioning of the electric Grid – the Critical Infrastructure system that generates and delivers electricity to our homes, businesses, and factories. Virtually all other Critical Infrastructure systems depend on the Grid for the electricity they require to execute other essential societal functions such as telecommunications, water supply and waste water services, fuel delivery, etc. This study examines the concepts of Critical Infrastructure and electric Grid resilience, and the role nuclear power plants do and might play in enhancing U.S. Grid resilience. Grid resilience is defined as the system’s ability to minimize interruptions of electricity flow to customers given a specific load prioritization hierarchy. The question of whether current U.S. nuclear power plants are significant Grid resilience assets is examined in light of this definition. Despite their many virtues and their “fuel security,” the conclusion is reached that current U.S. nuclear power plants are not significant Grid resilience assets for scenarios involving major Grid disruptions. The concept of a “resilient nuclear power plant” or “rNPP” – a nuclear power plant that is intentionally designed, sited, interfaced, and operated in a manner to enhance Grid resilience – is presented. Two rNPP Key Attributes and Six rNPP Functional Requirements are defined. Several rNPP design features (system architectures and technologies) that could enable a plant to achieve the Six rNPP Functional Requirements are described. Four specific applications of rNPPs are proposed: (1) rNPPs as flexible electricity generation assets, (2) rNPPs as anchors of hybrid nuclear energy systems, (3) rNPPs as Grid Black Start Resources, and (4) rNPPs as anchors of Resilient Critical Infrastructure Islands. The last two applications are new concepts for enhancing U.S. strategic resilience. Finally, a few key unresolved issues are discussed and recommendations for future research are offered. Study results support the overall conclusion that successful development and deployment of rNPPs could significantly enhance U.S. Grid, Critical Infrastructure, and societal resilience, while transforming the value proposition of nuclear energy in the 21st century

A surveillance strategy for four year operating cycle in commercial pressurized water reactors

Thesis (Nucl. E.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Engineering, 1996.by Thomas Joseph Moore, Jr.Nucl.E

Space resources. Volume 2: Energy, power, and transport

This volume of the Space Resources report covers a number of technical and policy issues concerning the energy and power to carry out advanced space missions and the means of transportation to get to the sites of those missions. Discussed in the first half of this volume are the technologies which might be used to provide power and a variety of ways to convert power from one form to another, store it, move it wherever it is needed, and use it. In the second half of this volume, various kinds of transportation, including both interplanetary and surface systems, are discussed

Risk-informed applications and online maintenance in France and the United States

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. "This study is part of a research project sponsored by EDF at MIT"--P. 3.Includes bibliographical references (p. 175-178).During the past twenty-five years, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been progressing toward a more risk-informed, performance-based regulation. This regulatory framework has effectively supported the development of online maintenance practices. In France, while the safety authority has been encouraging particular risk-informed applications, PRA (Probabilistic Risk Assessment) techniques have not penetrated the nuclear regulatory framework and industry to the same extent. After presenting relevant differences between the French and US nuclear industries and regulatory frameworks, the development and use of risk-informed applications in both countries are reviewed. In the United States, these techniques are usually well-accepted and have brought positive results regarding operational performance, plant safety and regulatory efficiency. In France, there have been in some cases difficulties regarding the acceptability of these techniques with the safety authority, but also within the operating company. While PRA results are commonly used in the US at the operational level through the use of risk-monitors, there appear to be in France obstacles to such practices. Online maintenance regulations and practices are then presented. US technical specifications provide much flexibility to voluntarily enter technical specifications action statements for online maintenance. As a result, following the implementation of the Maintenance Rule, online maintenance has been increasingly applied, leading to operational as well as safety improvements. In France technical specifications are more restrictive regarding these aspects, and online maintenance of safety-significant systems is often not allowed or allowed under restrictive conditions. A case study concerning the maintenance of emergency diesel generators and emergency core cooling systems is presented to illustrate and study these points in more detail. Finally, possible directions to facilitate the implementation of an online maintenance strategy in France are identified, and their implications are discussed.by Edouard Verdier.S.M

The energy dilemma and its impact on air transportation

The dimensions of the energy situation are discussed in relation to air travel. Energy conservation, fuel consumption, and combustion efficiency are examined, as well as the proposal for subsonic aircraft using hydrogen fuel

Supervisory Control System Architecture for Advanced Small Modular Reactors

This technical report was generated as a product of the Supervisory Control for Multi-Modular SMR Plants project within the Instrumentation, Control and Human-Machine Interface technology area under the Advanced Small Modular Reactor (SMR) Research and Development Program of the U.S. Department of Energy. The report documents the definition of strategies, functional elements, and the structural architecture of a supervisory control system for multi-modular advanced SMR (AdvSMR) plants. This research activity advances the state-of-the art by incorporating decision making into the supervisory control system architectural layers through the introduction of a tiered-plant system approach. The report provides a brief history of hierarchical functional architectures and the current state-of-the-art, describes a reference AdvSMR to show the dependencies between systems, presents a hierarchical structure for supervisory control, indicates the importance of understanding trip setpoints, applies a new theoretic approach for comparing architectures, identifies cyber security controls that should be addressed early in system design, and describes ongoing work to develop system requirements and hardware/software configurations