Power Cycle Assessment of Nuclear Systems, Providing Energy Storage for Low Carbon Grids

Abstract

The intermittency of renewable power generation systems on the low carbon electric grid can be alleviated by using nuclear systems as quasi-storage systems. Nuclear air-Brayton systems can produce and store hydrogen when electric generation is abundant and then burn the hydrogen by co-firing when generation is limited. The rated output of a nuclear plant can be significantly augmented by co-firing. The incremental efficiency of hydrogen to electricity can far exceed that of hydrogen in a standalone gas turbine. Herein, we simulate and evaluate this idea on a 50 MW small modular liquid metal/molten salt reactor. Considerable power increases are predicted for nuclear air-Brayton systems by co-firing with hydrogen before the power turbine.