Considerations Associated with Reactor Technology Selection for the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project

At the inception of the Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project and during predecessor activities, alternative reactor technologies have been evaluated to determine the technology that best fulfills the functional and performance requirements of the targeted energy applications and market. Unlike the case of electric power generation where the reactor performance is primarily expressed in terms of economics, the targeted energy applications involve industrial applications that have specific needs in terms of acceptable heat transport fluids and the associated thermodynamic conditions. Hence, to be of interest to these industrial energy applications, the alternative reactor technologies are weighed in terms of the reactor coolant/heat transport fluid, achievable reactor outlet temperature, and practicality of operations to achieve the very high reliability demands associated with the petrochemical, petroleum, metals and related industries. These evaluations have concluded that the high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) can uniquely provide the required ranges of energy needs for these target applications, do so with promising economics, and can be commercialized with reasonable development risk in the time frames of current industry interest – i.e., within the next 10-15 years