Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant

Robert Benjamin Eshun

doi:doi:10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

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Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant

Robert Benjamin Eshun

Published in Advances in Applied Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 1)

Received: 15 February 2019 Accepted: 1 April 2019 Published: 22 April 2019

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Abstract

Energy and exergy analyses of the performance of the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000-MWe Nuclear Plant (AP1000) was conducted with the primary objectives to identify and quantify the operational locations having the largest energy and exergy losses under normal operating conditions. The energy and exergy losses in the reactor units were determined from formulations of the energy and exergy rate balances based on the Gouy-Stodola theorem. The performance of the overall AP1000 plant was estimated by component wise modeling and detailed break-up of energy and exergy losses in the various plant sections. Operating at maximum core power of 3400 MW, the AP1000 reactor core experienced moderately small thermal loss of 125.1 MW and very substantial exergy consumption of 1814.8 MW achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 96.3% and 46.6% respectively. For the entire AP1000 plant, energy losses occurred mainly in the condenser where 1849.8 MW was lost to the environment. Exergy analysis, however, revealed lost energy in the condenser was thermodynamically insignificant due to the low quality and that irreversible losses of 1868.4 MW in the reactor and steam generator assembly were the major source of irreversibilities in the plant. The study confirmed that the major heat transfer inefficiencies occurring in nuclear reactor plants resided in the reactor cores and efforts to increase the efficiency of the plant should concentrate on the design of the core components.

Published in	Advances in Applied Sciences (Volume 4, Issue 1)
DOI	10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
Page(s)	1-10
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Energy Analysis, Exergy Analysis, Gouy-Stodola Theorem, Irreversibility, Maximum Work, Energy Conversion Systems, Reactor Core, Nuclear Power Plant

References

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[2]	Tsatsaronis G. and Cziesla F., (2009), Exergy and Thermodynamic Analysis. In Exergy, Energy System Analysis and Optimization (Frangopoulos, C. A., ed.), Vol. 1, EOLSS Publishers, Oxford, UK.
[3]	Terzi R., (2018), Application of Exergy Analysis to Energy Systems, IntechOpen, doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.74433.
[4]	Evola G., Costanzo V., and Marletta L., (2018), Exergy Analysis of Energy Systems in Buildings, Buildings, 8, 180; doi:10.3390/buildings8120180
[5]	Gilbert A. and Mesmer B., (2016), Uses of Exergy in Systems Engineering, In Proc. 2016 Conference on Systems Engineering Research, Mar 22- 24, Huntsville, Alabama, USA.
[6]	Szargut J., (2005), Exergy Analysis, The Magazine of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 3, Warsaw, Poland.
[7]	Wall G. and Gong M., (2001), On Exergy and Sustainable Development – Part 1: Conditions and Concepts, Exergy, An International Journal, Vol, 1, No. 3, pp. 128 – 145.
[8]	Tsatsaronis G. and Cziesla F., (2009), Exergy Analysis of Simple Processes, In Exergy, Energy System Analysis and Optimization (Frangopoulos, C. A., ed.), Vol. 1, EOLSS Publishers, Oxford, UK.
[9]	Lahey R. T. Jr. and Moody F J., (1993), The Thermal-Hydraulics of a Boiling Water Nuclear Reactor, 2nd Edition, American Nuclear Society, Illinois, USA.
[10]	Nikulshin V., Wu C. and Nikulshina V., (2002), Exergy efficiency calculation of energy intensive systems, Exergy, An International Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 78-86.
[11]	Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC., (2002), AP1000 Design Control Document – Chapter 10: Steam and power conversion, Tier-2 material 10.1.
[12]	Todreas N. E. and Kazimi M. S., (1990), Nuclear Systems 1: Thermal Hydraulic Fundamentals, Taylor & Francis, USA.
[13]	Ameh L., (2012), Numerical Modelling of the Transient Temperature Distribution Within the Fuel Pin of the AP1000 Reactor During a Small Break Loss-of-Coolant Accident, MPhil Thesis, University of Ghana, Legon.
[14]	Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC., (2002), AP1000 Design Control Document – Chapter 5: Reactor coolant system and connected systems, Tier-2 material 5.1, Revision 15.
[15]	Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC. (2003), The Westinghouse AP1000 Advanced Nuclear Plant - Plant Description, Nuclear Engineering and Design, Vol. 236, pp. 1547–1557.
[16]	Ahmet Durmayaz and HasbiYavuz, (2001), Exergy analysis of a pressurized-water reactor nuclear-power plant, Applied energy, Vol. 69, issue 1, pp. 39-57.

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APA Style

Robert Benjamin Eshun. (2019). Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant. Advances in Applied Sciences, 4(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

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Robert Benjamin Eshun. Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant. Adv. Appl. Sci. 2019, 4(1), 1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

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AMA Style

Robert Benjamin Eshun. Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant. Adv Appl Sci. 2019;4(1):1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

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@article{10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11,
  author = {Robert Benjamin Eshun},
  title = {Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant},
  journal = {Advances in Applied Sciences},
  volume = {4},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-10},
  doi = {10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.aas.20190401.11},
  abstract = {Energy and exergy analyses of the performance of the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000-MWe Nuclear Plant (AP1000) was conducted with the primary objectives to identify and quantify the operational locations having the largest energy and exergy losses under normal operating conditions. The energy and exergy losses in the reactor units were determined from formulations of the energy and exergy rate balances based on the Gouy-Stodola theorem. The performance of the overall AP1000 plant was estimated by component wise modeling and detailed break-up of energy and exergy losses in the various plant sections. Operating at maximum core power of 3400 MW, the AP1000 reactor core experienced moderately small thermal loss of 125.1 MW and very substantial exergy consumption of 1814.8 MW achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 96.3% and 46.6% respectively. For the entire AP1000 plant, energy losses occurred mainly in the condenser where 1849.8 MW was lost to the environment. Exergy analysis, however, revealed lost energy in the condenser was thermodynamically insignificant due to the low quality and that irreversible losses of 1868.4 MW in the reactor and steam generator assembly were the major source of irreversibilities in the plant. The study confirmed that the major heat transfer inefficiencies occurring in nuclear reactor plants resided in the reactor cores and efforts to increase the efficiency of the plant should concentrate on the design of the core components.},
 year = {2019}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant
AU  - Robert Benjamin Eshun
Y1  - 2019/04/22
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
T2  - Advances in Applied Sciences
JF  - Advances in Applied Sciences
JO  - Advances in Applied Sciences
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1514
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
AB  - Energy and exergy analyses of the performance of the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000-MWe Nuclear Plant (AP1000) was conducted with the primary objectives to identify and quantify the operational locations having the largest energy and exergy losses under normal operating conditions. The energy and exergy losses in the reactor units were determined from formulations of the energy and exergy rate balances based on the Gouy-Stodola theorem. The performance of the overall AP1000 plant was estimated by component wise modeling and detailed break-up of energy and exergy losses in the various plant sections. Operating at maximum core power of 3400 MW, the AP1000 reactor core experienced moderately small thermal loss of 125.1 MW and very substantial exergy consumption of 1814.8 MW achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 96.3% and 46.6% respectively. For the entire AP1000 plant, energy losses occurred mainly in the condenser where 1849.8 MW was lost to the environment. Exergy analysis, however, revealed lost energy in the condenser was thermodynamically insignificant due to the low quality and that irreversible losses of 1868.4 MW in the reactor and steam generator assembly were the major source of irreversibilities in the plant. The study confirmed that the major heat transfer inefficiencies occurring in nuclear reactor plants resided in the reactor cores and efforts to increase the efficiency of the plant should concentrate on the design of the core components.
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
ER  -

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Author Information

Robert Benjamin Eshun

Faculty of Engineering, Ghana Technology University College, Accra, Ghana

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APA Style

Robert Benjamin Eshun. (2019). Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant. Advances in Applied Sciences, 4(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

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ACS Style

Robert Benjamin Eshun. Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant. Adv. Appl. Sci. 2019, 4(1), 1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

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AMA Style

Robert Benjamin Eshun. Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant. Adv Appl Sci. 2019;4(1):1-10. doi: 10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11,
  author = {Robert Benjamin Eshun},
  title = {Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant},
  journal = {Advances in Applied Sciences},
  volume = {4},
  number = {1},
  pages = {1-10},
  doi = {10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.aas.20190401.11},
  abstract = {Energy and exergy analyses of the performance of the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000-MWe Nuclear Plant (AP1000) was conducted with the primary objectives to identify and quantify the operational locations having the largest energy and exergy losses under normal operating conditions. The energy and exergy losses in the reactor units were determined from formulations of the energy and exergy rate balances based on the Gouy-Stodola theorem. The performance of the overall AP1000 plant was estimated by component wise modeling and detailed break-up of energy and exergy losses in the various plant sections. Operating at maximum core power of 3400 MW, the AP1000 reactor core experienced moderately small thermal loss of 125.1 MW and very substantial exergy consumption of 1814.8 MW achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 96.3% and 46.6% respectively. For the entire AP1000 plant, energy losses occurred mainly in the condenser where 1849.8 MW was lost to the environment. Exergy analysis, however, revealed lost energy in the condenser was thermodynamically insignificant due to the low quality and that irreversible losses of 1868.4 MW in the reactor and steam generator assembly were the major source of irreversibilities in the plant. The study confirmed that the major heat transfer inefficiencies occurring in nuclear reactor plants resided in the reactor cores and efforts to increase the efficiency of the plant should concentrate on the design of the core components.},
 year = {2019}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant
AU  - Robert Benjamin Eshun
Y1  - 2019/04/22
PY  - 2019
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
DO  - 10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
T2  - Advances in Applied Sciences
JF  - Advances in Applied Sciences
JO  - Advances in Applied Sciences
SP  - 1
EP  - 10
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-1514
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.aas.20190401.11
AB  - Energy and exergy analyses of the performance of the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000-MWe Nuclear Plant (AP1000) was conducted with the primary objectives to identify and quantify the operational locations having the largest energy and exergy losses under normal operating conditions. The energy and exergy losses in the reactor units were determined from formulations of the energy and exergy rate balances based on the Gouy-Stodola theorem. The performance of the overall AP1000 plant was estimated by component wise modeling and detailed break-up of energy and exergy losses in the various plant sections. Operating at maximum core power of 3400 MW, the AP1000 reactor core experienced moderately small thermal loss of 125.1 MW and very substantial exergy consumption of 1814.8 MW achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 96.3% and 46.6% respectively. For the entire AP1000 plant, energy losses occurred mainly in the condenser where 1849.8 MW was lost to the environment. Exergy analysis, however, revealed lost energy in the condenser was thermodynamically insignificant due to the low quality and that irreversible losses of 1868.4 MW in the reactor and steam generator assembly were the major source of irreversibilities in the plant. The study confirmed that the major heat transfer inefficiencies occurring in nuclear reactor plants resided in the reactor cores and efforts to increase the efficiency of the plant should concentrate on the design of the core components.
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
ER  -

Copy | Download