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MIT and Westinghouse have been working on increasing the power of existing pressure water nuclear reactors by 50%. A test reactor at MIT had successful tests. The technical and economic issues continue to be studied. This presents the economic and technical analysis that are being performed. In 2006, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute started a project for development of PWR annular fuel. The ultra uprate makes economic sense where there is a lot of extra generator capacity at the plant and in the surrounding electrical grid. A half ultra uprate 25% makes economic sense in more places. 7-50% uprates can be performed depending upon the economics at each location and the capacity situation at each location. Use varying levels of ultra-uprate to max out the generator and other capacity. Plus other aspects of new plant construction or licensing could make ultra-uprates more attractive and incremental upgrade/replacement of fuel rods with annular cylinders should improve the economics. The cost evaluation indicates that the largest cost components are the replacement of power (during the outage required for the uprate) and the new fuel loading. The preferred option for the BOP uprate (to build a new Turbine/Generator building for the added power) has a large negative impact in the economic aspects of the uprate. In particular, the cost per installed kilowatt of the added components will be relatively large due to the relatively poo ...
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MIT and Westinghouse have been working on increasing the power of existing pressure water nuclear reactors by 50%. A test reactor at MIT had successful tests. The technical and economic issues continue to be studied. This presents the economic and technical analysis that are being performed. In 2006, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute started a project for development of PWR annular fuel. The ultra uprate makes economic sense where there is a lot of extra generator capacity at the plant and in the surrounding electrical grid. A half ultra uprate 25% makes economic sense in more places. 7-50% uprates can be performed depending upon the economics at each location and the capacity situation at each location. Use varying levels of ultra-uprate to max out the generator and other capacity. Plus other aspects of new plant construction or licensing could make ultra-uprates more attractive and incremental upgrade/replacement of fuel rods with annular cylinders should improve the economics. The cost evaluation indicates that the largest cost components are the replacement of power (during the outage required for the uprate) and the new fuel loading. The preferred option for the BOP uprate (to build a new Turbine/Generator building for the added power) has a large negative impact in the economic aspects of the uprate. In particular, the cost per installed kilowatt of the added components will be relatively large due to the relatively poo ...