Extension of the supercritical carbon dioxide brayton cycle to low reactor power operation: investigations using the coupled anl plant dynamics code-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 liquid metal reactor code system.

Significant progress has been made on the development of a control strategy for the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle enabling removal of power from an autonomous load following Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) down to decay heat levels such that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be used to cool the reactor until decay heat can be removed by the normal shutdown heat removal system or a passive decay heat removal system such as Direct Reactor Auxiliary Cooling System (DRACS) loops with DRACS in-vessel heat exchangers. This capability of the new control strategy eliminates the need for use of a separate shutdown heat removal system which might also use supercritical CO{sub 2}. It has been found that this capability can be achieved by introducing a new control mechanism involving shaft speed control for the common shaft joining the turbine and two compressors following reduction of the load demand from the electrical grid to zero. Following disconnection of the generator from the electrical grid, heat is removed from the intermediate sodium circuit through the sodium-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchanger, the turbine solely drives the two compressors, and heat is rejected from the cycle through the CO{sub 2}-to-water cooler. To investigate the effectiveness of shaft speed control, calculations are carried out using the coupled Plant Dynamics Code-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 code for a linear load reduction transient for a 1000 MWt metallic-fueled SFR with autonomous load following. No deliberate motion of control rods or adjustment of sodium pump speeds is assumed to take place. It is assumed that the S-CO{sub 2} turbomachinery shaft speed linearly decreases from 100 to 20% nominal following reduction of grid load to zero. The reactor power is calculated to autonomously decrease down to 3% nominal providing a lengthy window in time for the switchover to the normal shutdown heat removal system or for a passive decay heat removal system to become effective. However, the calculations reveal that the compressor conditions are calculated to approach surge such that the need for a surge control system for each compressor is identified. Thus, it is demonstrated that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can operate in the initial decay heat removal mode even with autonomous reactor control. Because external power is not needed to drive the compressors, the results show that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be used for initial decay heat removal for a lengthy interval in time in the absence of any off-site electrical power. The turbine provides sufficient power to drive the compressors. Combined with autonomous reactor control, this represents a significant safety advantage of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle by maintaining removal of the reactor power until the core decay heat falls to levels well below those for which the passive decay heat removal system is designed. The new control strategy is an alternative to a split-shaft layout involving separate power and compressor turbines which had previously been identified as a promising approach enabling heat removal from a SFR at low power levels. The current results indicate that the split-shaft configuration does not provide any significant benefits for the S-CO{sub 2} cycle over the current single-shaft layout with shaft speed control. It has been demonstrated that when connected to the grid the single-shaft cycle can effectively follow the load over the entire range. No compressor speed variation is needed while power is delivered to the grid. When the system is disconnected from the grid, the shaft speed can be changed as effectively as it would be with the split-shaft arrangement. In the split-shaft configuration, zero generator power means disconnection of the power turbine, such that the resulting system will be almost identical to the single-shaft arrangement. Without this advantage of the split-shaft configuration, the economic benefits of the single-shaft arrangement, provided by just one turbine and lower losses at the design point, are more important to the overall cycle performance. Therefore, the single-shaft configuration shall be retained as the reference arrangement for S-CO{sub 2} cycle power converter preconceptual designs. Improvements to the ANL Plant Dynamics Code have been carried out. The major code improvement is the introduction of a restart capability which simplifies investigation of control strategies for very long transients. Another code modification is transfer of the entire code to a new Intel Fortran complier; the execution of the code using the new compiler was verified by demonstrating that the same results are obtained as when the previous Compaq Visual Fortran compiler was used

Supercritical carbon dioxide cycle control analysis.

This report documents work carried out during FY 2008 on further investigation of control strategies for supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle energy converters. The main focus of the present work has been on investigation of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle control and behavior under conditions not covered by previous work. An important scenario which has not been previously calculated involves cycle operation for a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) following a reactor scram event and the transition to the primary coolant natural circulation and decay heat removal. The Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) Plant Dynamics Code has been applied to investigate the dynamic behavior of the 96 MWe (250 MWt) Advanced Burner Test Reactor (ABTR) S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle following scram. The timescale for the primary sodium flowrate to coast down and the transition to natural circulation to occur was calculated with the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 computer code and found to be about 400 seconds. It is assumed that after this time, decay heat is removed by the normal ABTR shutdown heat removal system incorporating a dedicated shutdown heat removal S-CO{sub 2} pump and cooler. The ANL Plant Dynamics Code configured for the Small Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SSTAR) Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) was utilized to model the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle with a decaying liquid metal coolant flow to the Pb-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchangers and temperatures reflecting the decaying core power and heat removal by the cycle. The results obtained in this manner are approximate but indicative of the cycle transient performance. The ANL Plant Dynamics Code calculations show that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can operate for about 400 seconds following the reactor scram driven by the thermal energy stored in the reactor structures and coolant such that heat removal from the reactor exceeds the decay heat generation. Based on the results, requirements for the shutdown heat removal system may be defined. In particular, the peak heat removal capacity of the shutdown heat removal loop may be specified to be 1.1 % of the nominal reactor power. An investigation of the oscillating cycle behavior calculated by the ANL Plant Dynamics Code under specific conditions has been carried out. It has been found that the calculation of unstable operation of the cycle during power reduction to 0 % may be attributed to the modeling of main compressor operation. The most probable reason for such instabilities is the limit of applicability of the currently used one-dimensional compressor performance subroutines which are based on empirical loss coefficients. A development of more detailed compressor design and performance models is required and is recommended for future work in order to better investigate and possibly eliminate the calculated instabilities. Also, as part of such model development, more reliable surge criteria should be developed for compressor operation close to the critical point. It is expected that more detailed compressor models will be developed as a part of validation of the Plant Dynamics Code through model comparison with the experiment data generated in the small S-CO{sub 2} loops being constructed at Barber-Nichols Inc. and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). Although such a comparison activity had been planned to be initiated in FY 2008, data from the SNL compression loop currently in operation at Barber Nichols Inc. has not yet become available by the due date of this report. To enable the transient S-CO{sub 2} cycle investigations to be carried out, the ANL Plant Dynamics Code for the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle was further developed and improved. The improvements include further optimization and tuning of the control mechanisms as well as an adaptation of the code for reactor systems other than the Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR). Since the focus of the ANL work on S-CO{sub 2} cycle development for the majority of the current year has been on the applicability of the cycle to SFRs, work has started on modification of the ANL Plant Dynamics Code to allow the dynamic simulation of the ABTR. The code modifications have reached the point where a transient simulation can be run in steady state mode; i.e., to determine the steady state initial conditions at full power without an initiating event. The results show that the steady state solution is maintained with minimal variations during at least 4,000 seconds of the transient. More SFR design specific modifications to the ANL Plant Dynamics Code are required to run the code in a full transient mode, including models for the sodium pumps and their control as well as models for reactivity feedback and control of the reactor power

Performance improvement options for the supercritical carbon dioxide brayton cycle.

The supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle is under development at Argonne National Laboratory as an advanced power conversion technology for Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors (SFRs) as well as other Generation IV advanced reactors as an alternative to the traditional Rankine steam cycle. For SFRs, the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle eliminates the need to consider sodium-water reactions in the licensing and safety evaluation, reduces the capital cost of the SFR plant, and increases the SFR plant efficiency. Even though the S-CO{sub 2} cycle has been under development for some time and optimal sets of operating parameters have been determined, those earlier development and optimization studies have largely been directed at applications to other systems such as gas-cooled reactors which have higher operating temperatures than SFRs. In addition, little analysis has been carried out to investigate cycle configurations deviating from the selected 'recompression' S-CO{sub 2} cycle configuration. In this work, several possible ways to improve S-CO{sub 2} cycle performance for SFR applications have been identified and analyzed. One set of options incorporates optimization approaches investigated previously, such as variations in the maximum and minimum cycle pressure and minimum cycle temperature, as well as a tradeoff between the component sizes and the cycle performance. In addition, the present investigation also covers options which have received little or no attention in the previous studies. Specific options include a 'multiple-recompression' cycle configuration, intercooling and reheating, as well as liquid-phase CO{sub 2} compression (pumping) either by CO{sub 2} condensation or by a direct transition from the supercritical to the liquid phase. Some of the options considered did not improve the cycle efficiency as could be anticipated beforehand. Those options include: a double recompression cycle, intercooling between the compressor stages, and reheating between the turbine stages. Analyses carried out as part of the current investigation confirm the possibilities of improving the cycle efficiency that have been identified in previous investigations. The options in this group include: increasing the heat exchanger and turbomachinery sizes, raising of the cycle high end pressure (although the improvement potential of this option is very limited), and optimization of the low end temperature and/or pressure to operate as close to the (pseudo) critical point as possible. Analyses carried out for the present investigation show that significant cycle performance improvement can sometimes be realized if the cycle operates below the critical temperature at its low end. Such operation, however, requires the availability of a heat sink with a temperature lower than 30 C for which applicability of this configuration is dependent upon the climate conditions where the plant is constructed (i.e., potential performance improvements are site specific). Overall, it is shown that the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle efficiency can potentially be increased to 45 %, if a low temperature heat sink is available and incorporation of larger components (e.g.., heat exchangers or turbomachinery) having greater component efficiencies does not significantly increase the overall plant cost

Status report on the Small Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SSTAR) /Lead-cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) and supporting research and development.

This report provides an update on development of a pre-conceptual design for the Small Secure Transportable Autonomous Reactor (SSTAR) Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR) plant concept and supporting research and development activities. SSTAR is a small, 20 MWe (45 MWt), natural circulation, fast reactor plant for international deployment concept incorporating proliferation resistance for deployment in non-fuel cycle states and developing nations, fissile self-sufficiency for efficient utilization of uranium resources, autonomous load following making it suitable for small or immature grid applications, and a high degree of passive safety further supporting deployment in developing nations. In FY 2006, improvements have been made at ANL to the pre-conceptual design of both the reactor system and the energy converter which incorporates a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle providing higher plant efficiency (44 %) and improved economic competitiveness. The supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle technology is also applicable to Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactors providing the same benefits. One key accomplishment has been the development of a control strategy for automatic control of the supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle in principle enabling autonomous load following over the full power range between nominal and essentially zero power. Under autonomous load following operation, the reactor core power adjusts itself to equal the heat removal from the reactor system to the power converter through the large reactivity feedback of the fast spectrum core without the need for motion of control rods, while the automatic control of the power converter matches the heat removal from the reactor to the grid load. The report includes early calculations for an international benchmarking problem for a LBE-cooled, nitride-fueled fast reactor core organized by the IAEA as part of a Coordinated Research Project on Small Reactors without Onsite Refueling; the calculations use the same neutronics computer codes and methodologies applied to SSTAR. Another section of the report details the SSTAR safety design approach which is based upon defense-in-depth providing multiple levels of protection against the release of radioactive materials and how the inherent safety features of the lead coolant, nitride fuel, fast neutron spectrum core, pool vessel configuration, natural circulation, and containment meet or exceed the requirements for each level of protection. The report also includes recent results of a systematic analysis by LANL of data on corrosion of candidate cladding and structural material alloys of interest to SSTAR by LBE and Pb coolants; the data were taken from a new database on corrosion by liquid metal coolants created at LANL. The analysis methodology that considers penetration of an oxidation front into the alloy and dissolution of the trailing edge of the oxide into the coolant enables the long-term corrosion rate to be extracted from shorter-term corrosion data thereby enabling an evaluation of alloy performance over long core lifetimes (e.g., 30 years) that has heretofore not been possible. A number of candidate alloy specimens with special treatments or coatings which might enhance corrosion resistance at the temperatures at which SSTAR would operate were analyzed following testing in the DELTA loop at LANL including steels that were treated by laser peening at LLNL; laser peening is an approach that alters the oxide-metal bonds which could potentially improve corrosion resistance. LLNL is also carrying out Multi-Scale Modeling of the Fe-Cr system with the goal of assisting in the development of cladding and structural materials having greater resistance to irradiation

Development of the Anl Plant Dynamics Code and Control Strategies for the Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle and Code Validation With Data From the Sandia Small-Scale Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle Test Loop.a

Significant progress has been made in the ongoing development of the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) Plant Dynamics Code (PDC), the ongoing investigation and development of control strategies, and the analysis of system transient behavior for supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycles. Several code modifications have been introduced during FY2011 to extend the range of applicability of the PDC and to improve its calculational stability and speed. A new and innovative approach was developed to couple the Plant Dynamics Code for S-CO{sub 2} cycle calculations with SAS4A/SASSYS-1 Liquid Metal Reactor Code System calculations for the transient system level behavior on the reactor side of a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) or Lead-Cooled Fast Reactor (LFR). The new code system allows use of the full capabilities of both codes such that whole-plant transients can now be simulated without additional user interaction. Several other code modifications, including the introduction of compressor surge control, a new approach for determining the solution time step for efficient computational speed, an updated treatment of S-CO{sub 2} cycle flow mergers and splits, a modified enthalpy equation to improve the treatment of negative flow, and a revised solution of the reactor heat exchanger (RHX) equations coupling the S-CO{sub 2} cycle to the reactor, were introduced to the PDC in FY2011. All of these modifications have improved the code computational stability and computational speed, while not significantly affecting the results of transient calculations. The improved PDC was used to continue the investigation of S-CO{sub 2} cycle control and transient behavior. The coupled PDC-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 code capability was used to study the dynamic characteristics of a S-CO{sub 2} cycle coupled to a SFR plant. Cycle control was investigated in terms of the ability of the cycle to respond to a linear reduction in the electrical grid demand from 100% to 0% at a rate of 5%/minute. It was determined that utilization of turbine throttling control below 50% load improves the cycle efficiency significantly. Consequently, the cycle control strategy has been updated to include turbine throttle valve control. The new control strategy still relies on inventory control in the 50%-90% load range and turbine bypass for fine and fast generator output adjustments, but it now also includes turbine throttling control in the 0%-50% load range. In an attempt to investigate the feasibility of using the S-CO{sub 2} cycle for normal decay heat removal from the reactor, the cycle control study was extended beyond the investigation of normal load following. It was shown that such operation is possible with the extension of the inventory and the turbine throttling controls. However, the cycle operation in this range is calculated to be so inefficient that energy would need to be supplied from the electrical grid assuming that the generator could be capable of being operated in a motoring mode with an input electrical energy from the grid having a magnitude of about 20% of the nominal plant output electrical power level in order to maintain circulation of the CO{sub 2} in the cycle. The work on investigation of cycle operation at low power level will be continued in the future. In addition to the cycle control study, the coupled PDC-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 code system was also used to simulate thermal transients in the sodium-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchanger. Several possible conditions with the potential to introduce significant changes to the heat exchanger temperatures were identified and simulated. The conditions range from reactor scram and primary sodium pump failure or intermediate sodium pump failure on the reactor side to pipe breaks and valve malfunctions on the S-CO{sub 2} side. It was found that the maximum possible rate of the heat exchanger wall temperature change for the particular heat exchanger design assumed is limited to {+-}7 C/s for less than 10 seconds. Modeling in the Plant Dynamics Code has been compared with available data from the Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) small-scale S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle demonstration that is being assembled in a phased approach currently at Barber-Nichols Inc. and at SNL in the future. The available data was obtained with an earlier configuration of the S-CO{sub 2} loop involving only a single-turbo-alternator-compressor (TAC) instead of two TACs, a single low temperature recuperator (LTR) instead of both a LTR and a high temperature recuperator (HTR), and fewer than the later to be installed full set of electric heaters. Due to the absence of the full heating capability as well as the lack of a high temperature recuperator providing additional recuperation, the temperature conditions obtained with the loop are too low for the loop conditions to be prototypical of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle

Investigation of Plant Control Strategies for the Supercritical c0{Sub 2}Brayton Cycle for a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor Using the Plant Dynamics Code.

The development of a control strategy for the supercritical CO{sub 2} (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle has been extended to the investigation of alternate control strategies for a Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) nuclear power plant incorporating a S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle power converter. The SFR assumed is the 400 MWe (1000 MWt) ABR-1000 preconceptual design incorporating metallic fuel. Three alternative idealized schemes for controlling the reactor side of the plant in combination with the existing automatic control strategy for the S-CO{sub 2} Brayton cycle are explored using the ANL Plant Dynamics Code together with the SAS4A/SASSYS-1 Liquid Metal Reactor (LMR) Analysis Code System coupled together using the iterative coupling formulation previously developed and implemented into the Plant Dynamics Code. The first option assumes that the reactor side can be ideally controlled through movement of control rods and changing the speeds of both the primary and intermediate coolant system sodium pumps such that the intermediate sodium flow rate and inlet temperature to the sodium-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchanger (RHX) remain unvarying while the intermediate sodium outlet temperature changes as the load demand from the electric grid changes and the S-CO{sub 2} cycle conditions adjust according to the S-CO{sub 2} cycle control strategy. For this option, the reactor plant follows an assumed change in load demand from 100 to 0 % nominal at 5 % reduction per minute in a suitable fashion. The second option allows the reactor core power and primary and intermediate coolant system sodium pump flow rates to change autonomously in response to the strong reactivity feedbacks of the metallic fueled core and assumed constant pump torques representing unchanging output from the pump electric motors. The plant behavior to the assumed load demand reduction is surprising close to that calculated for the first option. The only negative result observed is a slight increase in the intermediate inlet sodium temperatures by about 10 C. This temperature rise could presumably be precluded or significantly reduced through fine adjustment of the control rods and pump motors. The third option assumes that the reactor core power and primary and intermediate system flow rates are ideally reduced linearly in a programmed fashion that instantaneously matches the prescribed load demand. The calculated behavior of this idealized case reveals a number of difficulties because the control strategy for the S-CO{sub 2} cycle overcools the reactor potentially resulting in the calculation of sodium bulk freezing and the onset of sodium boiling. The results show that autonomous SFR operation may be viable for the particular assumed load change transient and deserves further investigation for other transients and postulated accidents

Extension of the Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Brayton Cycle to Low Reactor Power Operation: Investigations Using the Coupled Anl Plant Dynamics Code-sas4a/Sassys-1 Liquid Metal Reactor Code System.

Significant progress has been made on the development of a control strategy for the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle enabling removal of power from an autonomous load following Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) down to decay heat levels such that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be used to cool the reactor until decay heat can be removed by the normal shutdown heat removal system or a passive decay heat removal system such as Direct Reactor Auxiliary Cooling System (DRACS) loops with DRACS in-vessel heat exchangers. This capability of the new control strategy eliminates the need for use of a separate shutdown heat removal system which might also use supercritical CO{sub 2}. It has been found that this capability can be achieved by introducing a new control mechanism involving shaft speed control for the common shaft joining the turbine and two compressors following reduction of the load demand from the electrical grid to zero. Following disconnection of the generator from the electrical grid, heat is removed from the intermediate sodium circuit through the sodium-to-CO{sub 2} heat exchanger, the turbine solely drives the two compressors, and heat is rejected from the cycle through the CO{sub 2}-to-water cooler. To investigate the effectiveness of shaft speed control, calculations are carried out using the coupled Plant Dynamics Code-SAS4A/SASSYS-1 code for a linear load reduction transient for a 1000 MWt metallic-fueled SFR with autonomous load following. No deliberate motion of control rods or adjustment of sodium pump speeds is assumed to take place. It is assumed that the S-CO{sub 2} turbomachinery shaft speed linearly decreases from 100 to 20% nominal following reduction of grid load to zero. The reactor power is calculated to autonomously decrease down to 3% nominal providing a lengthy window in time for the switchover to the normal shutdown heat removal system or for a passive decay heat removal system to become effective. However, the calculations reveal that the compressor conditions are calculated to approach surge such that the need for a surge control system for each compressor is identified. Thus, it is demonstrated that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can operate in the initial decay heat removal mode even with autonomous reactor control. Because external power is not needed to drive the compressors, the results show that the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be used for initial decay heat removal for a lengthy interval in time in the absence of any off-site electrical power. The turbine provides sufficient power to drive the compressors. Combined with autonomous reactor control, this represents a significant safety advantage of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle by maintaining removal of the reactor power until the core decay heat falls to levels well below those for which the passive decay heat removal system is designed. The new control strategy is an alternative to a split-shaft layout involving separate power and compressor turbines which had previously been identified as a promising approach enabling heat removal from a SFR at low power levels. The current results indicate that the split-shaft configuration does not provide any significant benefits for the S-CO{sub 2} cycle over the current single-shaft layout with shaft speed control. It has been demonstrated that when connected to the grid the single-shaft cycle can effectively follow the load over the entire range. No compressor speed variation is needed while power is delivered to the grid. When the system is disconnected from the grid, the shaft speed can be changed as effectively as it would be with the split-shaft arrangement. In the split-shaft configuration, zero generator power means disconnection of the power turbine, such that the resulting system will be almost identical to the single-shaft arrangement. Without this advantage of the split-shaft configuration, the economic benefits of the single-shaft arrangement, provided by just one turbine and lower losses at the design point, are more important to the overall cycle performance. Therefore, the single-shaft configuration shall be retained as the reference arrangement for S-CO{sub 2} cycle power converter preconceptual designs. Improvements to the ANL Plant Dynamics Code have been carried out. The major code improvement is the introduction of a restart capability which simplifies investigation of control strategies for very long transients. Another code modification is transfer of the entire code to a new Intel Fortran complier; the execution of the code using the new compiler was verified by demonstrating that the same results are obtained as when the previous Compaq Visual Fortran compiler was used

Analysis of supercritical CO{sub 2} cycle control strategies and dynamic response for Generation IV Reactors.

The analysis of specific control strategies and dynamic behavior of the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle has been extended to the two reactor types selected for continued development under the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative; namely, the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) and the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR). Direct application of the standard S-CO{sub 2} recompression cycle to the VHTR was found to be challenging because of the mismatch in the temperature drop of the He gaseous reactor coolant through the He-to-CO{sub 2} reactor heat exchanger (RHX) versus the temperature rise of the CO{sub 2} through the RHX. The reference VHTR features a large temperature drop of 450 C between the assumed core outlet and inlet temperatures of 850 and 400 C, respectively. This large temperature difference is an essential feature of the VHTR enabling a lower He flow rate reducing the required core velocities and pressure drop. In contrast, the standard recompression S-CO{sub 2} cycle wants to operate with a temperature rise through the RHX of about 150 C reflecting the temperature drop as the CO{sub 2} expands from 20 MPa to 7.4 MPa in the turbine and the fact that the cycle is highly recuperated such that the CO{sub 2} entering the RHX is effectively preheated. Because of this mismatch, direct application of the standard recompression cycle results in a relatively poor cycle efficiency of 44.9%. However, two approaches have been identified by which the S-CO{sub 2} cycle can be successfully adapted to the VHTR and the benefits of the S-CO{sub 2} cycle, especially a significant gain in cycle efficiency, can be realized. The first approach involves the use of three separate cascaded S-CO{sub 2} cycles. Each S-CO{sub 2} cycle is coupled to the VHTR through its own He-to-CO{sub 2} RHX in which the He temperature is reduced by 150 C. The three respective cycles have efficiencies of 54, 50, and 44%, respectively, resulting in a net cycle efficiency of 49.3 %. The other approach involves reducing the minimum cycle pressure significantly below the critical pressure such that the temperature drop in the turbine is increased while the minimum cycle temperature is maintained above the critical temperature to prevent the formation of a liquid phase. The latter approach also involves the addition of a precooler and a third compressor before the main compressor to retain the benefits of compression near the critical point with the main compressor. For a minimum cycle pressure of 1 MPa, a cycle efficiency of 49.5% is achieved. Either approach opens up the door to applying the SCO{sub 2} cycle to the VHTR. In contrast, the SFR system typically has a core outlet-inlet temperature difference of about 150 C such that the standard recompression cycle is ideally suited for direct application to the SFR. The ANL Plant Dynamics Code has been modified for application to the VHTR and SFR when the reactor side dynamic behavior is calculated with another system level computer code such as SAS4A/SYSSYS-1 in the SFR case. The key modification involves modeling heat exchange in the RHX, accepting time dependent tabular input from the reactor code, and generating time dependent tabular input to the reactor code such that both the reactor and S-CO{sub 2} cycle sides can be calculated in a convergent iterative scheme. This approach retains the modeling benefits provided by the detailed reactor system level code and can be applied to any reactor system type incorporating a S-CO{sub 2} cycle. This approach was applied to the particular calculation of a scram scenario for a SFR in which the main and intermediate sodium pumps are not tripped and the generator is not disconnected from the electrical grid in order to enhance heat removal from the reactor system thereby enhancing the cooldown rate of the Na-to-CO{sub 2} RHX. The reactor side is calculated with SAS4A/SASSYS-1 while the S-CO{sub 2} cycle is calculated with the Plant Dynamics Code with a number of iterations over a timescale of 500 seconds. It is found that the RHX undergoes a maximum cooldown rate of {approx} -0.3 C/s. The Plant Dynamics Code was also modified to decrease its running time by replacing the compressible flow form of the momentum equation with an incompressible flow equation for use inside of the cooler or recuperators where the CO{sub 2} has a compressibility similar to that of a liquid. Appendices provide a quasi-static control strategy for a SFR as well as the self-adaptive linear function fitting algorithm developed to produce the tabular data for input to the reactor code and Plant Dynamics Code from the detailed output of the other code