Energy and Exergy Based Performance Analysis of Westinghouse AP1000 Nuclear Power Plant

Abstract

Energy and exergy analyses of the performance of the Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000-MWe Nuclear Plant (AP1000) was conducted with the primary objectives to identify and quantify the operational locations having the largest energy and exergy losses under normal operating conditions. The energy and exergy losses in the reactor units were determined from formulations of the energy and exergy rate balances based on the Gouy-Stodola theorem. The performance of the overall AP1000 plant was estimated by component wise modeling and detailed break-up of energy and exergy losses in the various plant sections. Operating at maximum core power of 3400 MW, the AP1000 reactor core experienced moderately small thermal loss of 125.1 MW and very substantial exergy consumption of 1814.8 MW, achieving energy and exergy efficiencies of 96.3 % and 46.6 % respectively. For the entire AP1000 plant, energy losses occurred mainly in the condenser where 1849.8 MW was lost to the environment. Exergy analysis, however, revealed lost energy in the condenser was thermodynamically insignificant due to the low quality and that irreversible losses in the reactor and steam generator assembly (1868.4 MW) were the major source of irreversibilities in the plant. The study confirmed that the major heat transfer inefficiencies occurring in nuclear reactor plants resided in the reactor cores, and efforts to increase the efficiency of the station should concentrate on the design of the core components.