Dispatchable Electricity with Salt-Cooled Reactors, Heat Storage, and Base-load Reactor Operation

摘要

A new type of reactor is being developed: the Fluoride-salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor (FHR). The fuel is graphite-matrix coated-particle fuel-the same fuel used in High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors (HTGRs). The coolant is a clean high-temperature fluoride salt-the salts originally developed for molten salt reactors where the fuel is dissolved in the coolant. The combination of fuel and coolant enables the FHR to be coupled to a Nuclear Air-Brayton Combined Cycle (NACC) power plant that can produce base-load electricity and peak electricity with auxiliary natural gas. This enables the production of dispatchable electricity that improves economics by maximizing electricity at times of high electricity prices.