REACTOR DESIGN | eVINCI MICROREACTOR
Power in small packages
The eVinci microreactor is a 5 MWe package that is expected to deliver a lot of market punch when it begins commercial roll out in just a few years. Westinghouse’s Eddie Saab talks to NEI about realising its ambitious plans
WESTINGHOUSE’S EVINCI MICROREACTOR IS a transportable 5 MWe nuclear power plant designed to be as versatile as possible. With multiple applications on the cards, the reactor could see its first deployment in Canada following an agreement with Saskatchewan Research Council to explore industrial, research and energy use applications. With C$80m (US$59m) in government funding to support licensing and other work for the project, the reactor is scheduled to be completed in 2029. Following a tie-in with Canadian firm Prodigy Clean Energy, the reactor is also being assessed and designed to be deployed commercially at the heart of a floating power station as a mobile power pack for multiple applications. Eddie Saab, Vice President eVinci Market Development and President at Westinghouse Electric Canada Inc, outlines the thinking behind the eVinci design: “Several years ago our engineers were assessing various technologies that would fit end uses for remote communities and off-grid applications for industrial customers who don’t have access to grid power. The engineers determined the heat pipe reactor technology which Los Alamos National Labs in the US had been using for creating electricity for the NASA space programme would be ideal.” He continues: “It was very small scale just using uranium to heat up heat pipes and converting that heat into electricity. Westinghouse licensed the technology and then went on an engineering research and development programme to scale that technology up to be commercially viable.”
That design programme has now resulted in the eVinci
microreactor. In the eVinci unit, decay heat is removed via natural convection through air-to-air hear exchangers. The core transfers heat to the heat tube canister which, Westinghouse says, provides reliable heat removal to the atmosphere using natural convection and without the need for operator actions. “Some of the attributes that we really liked was that the technology when fully operational actually has no moving parts. It doesn’t use any external water sources either,” he says. This is one of the passive safety features of the design. The use of passive heat pipes rather than a liquid heat removal system eliminates the need for reactor coolant and associated systems as well as cooling water, simplifying the design and removing loss of coolant-type incidents from the equation. The system all doesn’t have any pumps and he machinery typically needed in a nuclear power plant or indeed any power plant that generates power from boiling water into steam. Saab explains: “The rector itself is taking ambient
air, heating up the air and then exhausting hot air into essentially a reverse jet engine. It’s a Brayton cycle power conversion unit. For customers who require just hot process heat you can do away with the power conversion unit and leverage the hot air. Typically, we’re going to see a need for both with some customers requiring high quality process heat for industrial applications, but also power generation for electricity. Using it for electricity,
Right:
The eVinci microreactor has been designed for a wealth of power and heating applications
40 | April 2024 |
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