Economic feasibility of heat supply from simple and safe nuclear plants

Use of nuclear energy as a heating source is greatly challenged by the econ omic factor since the nuclear heating reactors have relative small size and often the lower plant load factor. However, use of very simple reactor cou ld be a possible way to economically supply heat. A deep pool reactor (DPR) has been designed for this purpose. The DPR is a novel design of pool type reactor for heat only supply. The reactor core is put in a deep pool. By o nly putting light static water pressure on the core coolant, the DPR will b e able to meet che temperature requirements of heat supply for district hea ting. The feature of simplicity and safety of DPR makes a decrease of inves tment cost compared to other reactors for heating only purposes. According to the economical assessments, the capital investment to build a DPR plant is much less than that of a pressurized reactor with pressure vessels. For the DPR with 120 or 200 MW output, it can bear the economical comparison wi th a usual coal-fired heating plant. Some special means taken in DPR design make an increase of the burn-up level of spent fuel and a decrease of fuel cost. The feasibility studies of DPR in some cities in China show that hea ting cost using nuclear energy is only one third of that by coal and only o ne tenth of that by nature gas. Therefore, the DPR nuclear heating system p rovides an economically attractive solution to satisfy the demands of distr ict heating without contributing to increasing greenhouse gas emissions. (C ) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.