Investigation of different thermodynamic cycles for Nuclear Power Plants

Abstract

Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) play major role in today's electricity production. There are different types of power-conversion sides for NPPs. Most of them are based on the Rankine cycle. In this paper steam-cycle arrangements for CANDU, Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor (SFR) and Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) are investigated and compared. Thermodynamic layouts, T-S diagrams and thermodynamic efficiencies of corresponding cycles are investigated and presented.