A nuclear gas turbine perspective...the indirect cycle (IDC) offers a practical solution

The current generation of nuclear power plants are based on light water reactors and steam cycle power conversion systems. This coupling yields a power plant efficiency of less than 30% when dry-cooled. By utilizing a higher temperature heat source, and a more efficient prime-mover, the next generation of nuclear power plants have the potential for an efficiency of close to 50%, with attendant fuel savings and reduced heat rejection to the environment. The nuclear closed Brayton cycle (NCBC) gas turbine plant involves the coupling of a high temperature reactor (HTR) and a high efficiency helium gas turbine. Studies over many years have shown the merits of an indirect cycle (IDC) approach in which an intermediate heat exchanger is used to transfer the reactor thermal energy to the prime-mover. The major advantages of this include the following: (1) multipurpose nuclear heat source, (2) gas turbine operation in a clean nonnuclear environment, (3) power conversion system simplicity, and (4) maximum utilization of existing technology. An additional factor, which may dominate the above is that the IDC approach is in concert with the only active gas-cooled reactor program remaining in the world, namely a high temperature test reactor (HTTR) under construction in Japan, the culmination of which will be the demonstration of a viable high temperature nuclear heat source. The major theme of this paper is that the IDC nuclear gas turbine offers a practical NCBC power plant concept for operation in the second or third decades of the 21st century.