Sustainable Energy Seminar Series

media release: Monday, February 27, 3:30-4:30pm, Room 1115 Wisconsin Energy Institute and Online

"Power uprates in the current fleet of light water reactors," by Juliana Pacheco Duarte, Assistant Professor of Engineering Physics, UW-Madison

Abstract:

Power uprates in Light Water Reactors (LWRs) have been used by U.S. utilities to increase their cost-effectiveness by producing more electricity with a nominal cost increase. Still, recent studies developed by the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) suggest that further power uprates can be justified by state and federal government production credits and tax incentives to reduce U.S. carbon emissions. The superior material behavior and corrosion-resistant properties of near-term accident tolerant fuels (ATFs), proposed by industry after the Fukushima accident, can make it possible to allow power uprates in LWRs beyond the current levels; it requires, however, in-depth operational and safety analyses to evaluate potential impacts.

This seminar will present an overview of the power uprates in the U.S. and current research findings on two-phase flow instabilities in boiling water reactors (BWRs). We used experimental data commissioned by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to understand the instability boundaries of density wave oscillations under conditions relevant to BWR power uprates. The data were collected at the KATHY facility in Germany to represent a full-scaled rod bundle under anticipated transient without scram (i.e., without the reactor shutdown).

• Upcoming seminar details can be found here: https://energy.wisc.edu/events/seminar-series
• Archives of past seminars can be found here: https://energy.wisc.edu/events/seminar-series-archive
• The YouTube video playlist of past seminars can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5KvDvGhamVophFSGmWflU0PHpAPooO-u