Super Critical Water Reactor for Use in Steam Generation for Recovery of Bitumen Resources

Abstract

The process of recovering the bitumen (oil sand) resources in Alberta requires steam at high pressures.  To help reduce the carbon footprint of exploiting these fuel resources, an innovative new design of a CANDU super critical water reactor (CANDU-SCWR) is being considered to provide the high pressure steam required for the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process.  The high temperature and pressure associated with the CANDU-SCWR allow for the high pressure, temperature steam to be produced without supplementary energy.  The Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada (PTAC) has specified the SAGD process requires steam at 11 MPa and near 100% steam quality, and net electrical power of 106 MWe.This paper examines steam cycle and design options to meet the steam and power requirements defined by PTAC. Steam cycle options are examined focusing on the optimization of steam and power conversion. Additionally passive safety and cooling for both the heat transport and moderation systems are considered and their impact on performance are examined. As the CANDU-SCWR is at a preliminary stage of design, basic design parameters have been defined based on preliminary assessments. This paper is focused on a reactor with the following basic design assumptions: Vertical fuel channel; Re-entrant fuel channels; Pu-Th fuel; Batch refuelling.