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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GEMINI Plus (Research and Development in support of the GEMINI Initiative)

Teaser

Summary

GEMINI+ builds on the knowledge, experimental data and modelling tools acquired in the numerous European R&D projects carried out in the last 18 years, such as RAPHAEL, PUMA, EUROPAIRS, ARCHER and NC2I-R, dedicated to the development of HTGR technology. It also builds on the legacy of national programmes and on the inputs of international cooperation, such as the Generation IV international Forum (GIF). One aspect of the Gemini+ project aims at the safety approach and licensing of an HTGR integrated in/connected to an industrial facility (WP1). Preliminary results indicate that existing safety requirements and requirements under development can be adapted to a HTGR licensing procedure. The methodologies on safety assessment under development are assessed if appropriate to properly take into account unique HTGR safety features. As one of the key strategic objectives in the GEMINI+ project is the preparation for the industrial demonstration of a cogeneration HTGR power plant.

Work performed

Overview of the Work-Packages progress for the period
1. Overview of WP1
All tasks related to licensing issues are started and on schedule or already completed. Delay of the deliverable on HTTR dust is evaluated to be less risky because preliminary results are already presented. Delay on intended thermal hydraulic calculations (code comparison, transients, air ingress, fission product release) is caused by delay of determination of equilibrium core conditions. Considering the numbers of calculations needed this delay may be of medium risk for fully completing the calculation tasks. Preliminary results from WP1 activities indicate that existing safety requirements and requirements under development can be adapted to a HTGR licensing procedure. It might be reasonable to assume that methodologies on safety assessment under development are appropriate to properly take into account unique HTGR safety features. Deviations from existing HTGR designs will require confirmation of safety behaviour during detailed design phase.

2. Overview of WP2
Preliminary requirements, assumptions and constraints for the GEMINI+ cogeneration system have been established. Further work is ongoing in finalising the requirements. The preliminary description and justification of the system was produced. The final version later in the project will include a complete description of the design and a review of the design with respect to the requirements. The preliminary version of the safety options report was produced. Being preliminary, it does not elaborate on all items to be considered, it defines, however, precisely the content of the final safety report. Regarding core design development, thermal-hydraulic models were produced for two core configurations, the next stage is to include neutronic feedback, thence to define the power distributions. For the cost assessment, different references and international well-recognised sources are being studied in order to select the reference data. To assess the flexibility of the system, the secondary circuit design has been developed considering the end-users constraints, and operational issues. Two separate studies were conducted on the feasibility and benefits of modular manufacturing of the system; one on road transport limitations in Poland, France and Germany and another more generally on the principles of modular design. On decommissioning and waste management of the system, a paper was written on the five HTGRs that have operated in the past and that are now in different stages of decommissioning.

3. Overview of WP3
An inventory and review of advanced instrumentation options and of their applicability and benefit to HTGR has been performed and the supply chain for established and innovative instrumentation was screened and analysed for its usefulness in view of HTGR demonstration. Innovations in process heat applications were explored, for instance dry reforming of methane to produce syngas: this fundamental and widespread process in the chemical industry can be achieved with novel catalysts already in the 550ËšC - 650ËšC range using process heat from HTGR. The integration of HTGR in energy systems with a large fraction of variable renewables and/or strongly variable demands creates new requirements and opportunities. The cogeneration or polygeneration capability of HTGR comes in as an advantage owing to the possibility of load following and other grid services by flexible sharing of the secondary steam between the turbine and polygeneration applications, while keeping the nuclear reactor itself operating at nominal power. Examples are being analysed integrating e.g. nuclear with renewables (especially wind, CSP and solar photovoltaics) and fossil fuel and/or high temperature energy storage systems.

4. Overview of WP4
WP4 faced a lot of obstacles when defining the end-user actual needs and coupling of HTGR with hard coal based conventional industry that relays on mining and gas supply market and just e

Final results

The expected impact of the project described in section 2.1 of the DoA remains valid and it is becoming even more relevant following recent developments in Europe. We observe growing understanding of decision makers, that clean electricity production is only part of the problem. More energy is used for heating (industrial processes and households) and transport, today almost 100% covered by fossil fuels. Particularly in Poland, increase of CO2 emission cost caused electricity price crises at the end of 2018. Government published a draft of â€œEnergy Policy of Poland till 2040â€ in spring 2019, were HTGR reactors are mentioned as a future option for industrial heat production. HTGR technology was also added to the national list of â€œSmart Specialisationsâ€.