search engine crawled the Web.
The web site itself may have changed. You can check the current page or check for previous versions at the Internet Archive. Yahoo! is not affiliated with the authors of this page or responsible for its content.
Nuclear Desalination Complex with VK-300 Boiling-Type Reactor Facility World Nuclear Association Annual Symposium
8-10 September 2004 - London
© World Nuclear Association 2004
1
Nuclear Desalination Complex with VK-300
Boiling-Type Reactor Facility
B.A. Gabaraev, Yu.N. Kuznetzov, A.A. Romenkov, Yu.A. Mishanina
Abstract
With regard to the global-scale development of desalination technologies and the
stable growth demand for them, Russia also takes an active part in the
development of these technologies. Two major aspects play a special role here:
they are providing the desalination process with power and introducing new
materials capable of making the production of fresh water cheaper and of raising
the technical reliability of desalination units.
In achieving these tasks, the focus is on the most knowledge-intensive issues, to
which Russia is capable of making its contribution based both on the experience
of developing national nuclear power and the experience of developing,
manufacturing and operating desalination units, including the use of nuclear
power (the experience of BN-350 in Aktau (formerly Shevchenko), Kazakhstan).
In terms of design, the Nuclear Desalination Complex (NDC) with a VK-300
reactor facility is a modification of a nuclear power unit with a VK-300 reactor
developed for application at Russian nuclear cogeneration plants. A power unit
with a VK-300 reactor has a design power of 250 MW(e) with the turbine unit
operation in the condensation mode. In modes with the heat supply for
desalination needs, up to 400 Gcal/h of thermal energy can be used as steam from
turbine extractions with the simultaneous electricity generation by the turbine
generator of about 150 MW.
The report considers a VK-300 reactor based NDC with multi-stage evaporation
principle (MED) based distillation desalination units with horizontal-tube film
evaporators. Russia has an extensive experience of commissioning and long-term
commercial operation of domestically built desalination units with horizontal-tube
evaporators of different power (from 0.1 to 700m
3
/h). Seawater desalination units
built on their basis are more economic than evaporators of other types - by a
factor of 1.5-2.0 in terms of the energy consumption and by a factor of 1.5-1.8 in Nuclear Desalination Complex with VK-300 Boiling-Type Reactor Facility
2
WNA Annual Symposium 2004
terms of the specific quantity of metal and the development area. With regard to
the power unit capabilities of supplying heat for desalination (200-400 Gcal/h) as
part of an NDC with a VK-300, it is expedient to use distillation units with a
higher unit capacity.
The most attractive option is coupling the VK-300 energy source with distillation
desalination units based on the multi-stage evaporation principle (MED)
.
This is
the effective NDC structure allowing the use of turbine steam extractions for heat
supply (via the intermediate circuit) to the desalination system producing high
quality distillate. As it provides with thermal energy a desalination complex with
a capacity of 300 000m
3
per day, a nuclear plant consisting of two VK-300 power
units allows production of distillate with the cost of US$0.58 per m
3
. In this case,
the electricity supply to the power system is 357 MW(e). The electricity cost is
US$0.029 per kWh.
1. Introduction
Climatic conditions in most of the Russian territory are severe, which stimulates
the development of nuclear reactors not only for electricity production but also for
heat generation for district heating. Thus, since 1974 Russia has been operating
the Bilibino Nuclear Cogeneration Plant, providing safe nuclear electricity and
heat supply of the city of Bilibino and the surrounding area (1). Power plant
settlements near nuclear power plant are also supplied with heat and hot water
from NPPs. Therefore, Russia has an experience of safe nuclear heat generation
for public services (more than 2 million Gcal/year).
With regard to the global-scale development of desalination technologies and the
stable growth demand for them, Russia also takes an active part in the
development of these technologies. Two major aspects play a special role here:
they are providing the desalination process with power and introducing new
materials capable of making the production of fresh water cheaper and of raising
the technical reliability of desalination units. In achieving these tasks, the focus is
on the most knowledge-intensive issues, to which Russia is capable of making its
contribution based both on the experience of developing national nuclear power
and the experience of developing, manufacturing and operating desalination units,
including the use of nuclear power (the experience of BN-350 in Aktau (formerly
Shevchenko), Kazakhstan).
In terms of design, a desalination complex with a VK-300 reactor facility is a
modification of a nuclear power unit with VK-300 reactor (2) developed for
application at Russian nuclear cogeneration plants. A power unit with a VK-300
reactor has a design power of 250 MW(e) with the turbine unit operation in the
condensation mode. In modes with the heat supply for desalination needs, up to
400 Gcal/h of thermal energy can be used as steam from turbine extractions with
the simultaneous electricity generation by the turbine generator of about 150 MW.
The development of the VK-300 reactor facility for nuclear cogeneration plants
was started in 1997 to replace the operating plutonium production reactor of the
Krasnoyarsk Nuclear Complex of Russia. It was caused by Russias international
obligations to limit the production of weapons grade plutonium. The Russian
Ministry for Atomic Energy suggested a task of developing a nuclear reactor
facility based on proven technologies assimilated in Russia with the aim for the Kuznetsov
© World Nuclear Association 2004
3
industry to manufacture the equipment and reactor components with the use of a
small scope of R&D work as possible.
2. Technical characteristics of the VK-300 reactor facility
The VK-50 reactor in operation in Russia is considered as the prototype of the
VK-300 reactor. The experience of designing and operating a small-power VK-50
boiling-type reactor in Dimitrovgrad has been useful in developing the VK-300
reactor. International achievements in the field of designing and operating boiling-
type reactors have been also taken into account, primarily as far as the design of
passive safety systems. The VK-300 design features are based on the use of
equipment components developed and manufactured for other reactor types. For
example, it is the vessel of the VVER-1000 reactor. It is evident that the design
and commercialization of a new pressure vessel for a power reactor is a
complicated, time-consuming and expensive task. So the use of a ready
component (a power reactor vessel) facilitates the task of development of the VK-
300 reactor. Russia possesses production facilities for manufacturing such
pressure vessels. VVER-1000 fuel elements, RBMK neutron flux sensors and
fission chambers are used in the VK-300 reactor core. Cyclone separators that
were designed and experimentally optimized for being used in vertical steam
generators of VVER-1000 are installed in the reactor. Therefore, the design of the
VK-300, an innovative boiling-type reactor, uses many equipment components
technologically optimized and having the experience of operation. The same
principles were used also in the design of other plant equipment (turbine, heat
exchanging equipment, pumps) that also has operating prototypes. The general
view of the VK-300 reactor is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1.
General view of the VK-300 reactor:
1 fuel assemblies; 2 reactor lid; 3 reactor vessel; 4 steam separators;
5 natural circulation guide tubes; 6 control rod drivers
6
2
3
4
5
1 Nuclear Desalination Complex with VK-300 Boiling-Type Reactor Facility
4
WNA Annual Symposium 2004
The main technical characteristics of the reactor are shown in the following table:
Nominal thermal power of the reactor, MW
750
Nominal evaporative capacity, t/h
1370
Reactor steam pressure, Mpa
6.8
Reactor outlet steam temperature, C
285
Reactor outlet maximum steam humidity, %
0.1
Feedwater temperature, C
190
Average mass steam content at the FA outlet, %
15.6
Core dimensions (height
× equiv. diameter), m
2.42
× 3.16
Fuel enrichment, %
3.6
Fuel burnup, MW
day/U kg
41.4
Fuel campaign life:
effective days
calendar days (at the capacity factor of 0.8)
437
546
3. Simplified diagram of the natural circulation and separation in the
reactor
The reactor core is cooled during normal operation of the reactor and in any
emergency by natural coolant circulation. The VK-300 design uses a unique
system of coolant circulation and multi-stage separation in the reactor. We know
that the entire steam-water mixture flow upstream of the core in most of the
boiling-type reactors with internal steam sep