The increasing of the energy efficiency of nuclear power plants with fast neutron reactors by utilizing waste heat using heat pumps

Abstract

Today, an important task for the economy is to increase the efficiency of using primary fuel. At present, for nuclear power plants with VVER reactors, thermal efficiency is about 33%, with fast neutron reactors-more than 40%. This means that most of the heat produced is released into the atmosphere. In this paper, we consider methods to solve the problem of increasing energy efficiency by the example of NPPs with fast neutron reactors due to the utilization of low-grade waste heat. The results of practical implementation of utilization of low-potential thermal energy of thermal and nuclear power plants using heat pumps were generalized. The analysis of the utilization efficiency of waste heat from various NPP systems was performed. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.