Advanced Boiling Water Reactor

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Advanced Boiling Water Reactor
Developer / Manufacturer: General Electric , Hitachi , Toshiba
Development year: 1978
Developing country: JapanJapan Japan
Reactor data
Reactor type: Boiling water reactor
Design type: pressure vessel
Moderator: water
Cooling: water
Fuel: UO2, UO2-Gd2O3
Degree of enrichment: 3.2%
Vapor bubble coefficient: negative
Power classes in MW (gross): 1356, 1700
Containment: Available

The Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (abbreviation ABWR , German  advanced boiling water reactor ) is a boiling water reactor of the 3rd generation. The development of the reactor began in 1978. The first ABWR was put into operation in 1996 as Unit 6 in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant . It was developed in Japan by General Electric , Hitachi and Toshiba .

Technical characteristics

The electrical generator that is powered by this nuclear reactor has an electrical output of 1300 MW. The design combines developments from Europe, Japan and the USA. It brings improvements in many areas, including safety and reliability. The control rods are moved by screw mechanisms rather than a step-by-step movement.

use

The ABWR has been used four times to date. So far it has only been used in Japanese nuclear power plants , in the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (Units 6 and 7), Shika (Unit 2) and Hamaoka (Unit 5) plants. Two more reactors are under construction at the Lungmen nuclear power plant in Taiwan (Units 1 and 2). There were plans for further ABWR for the Fukushima I (blocks 7 and 8) and exist for the Higashidori (block 1), Kaminoseki (blocks 1 and 2), Oma and Shimane (block 3) plants.

On May 12, 1997, the ABWR was certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in the USA. In the US, the South Texas nuclear power plant was to get two ABWRs.

Availability

The four ABWR power plants that have been put into operation so far have below-average availability in international comparison, this is documented in the "Operation Factor" of the International Atomic Energy Agency (proportion of the operating time with electricity feed-in in the total duration of a year). In contrast to modern pressurized and boiling water reactors such as the Korean OPR-1000, the convoy or the construction line 72 with "operation factors" of around 90%, the ABWR power plants installed up to now have about three to five times the unavailability. In addition to technical problems in the power plants themselves, the causes are also due to external factors such as earthquakes and nuclear regulations. Units 6 and 7 in Kashiwazaki-Kariwa were shut down for inspection as a result of a scandal at the operating company Tepco in 2003, a major earthquake in 2007 led to a long-lasting shutdown, and as a result of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, the reactors were down not restarted after the fuel element replacement.

Shortly after commissioning, a turbine defect due to a design error was found in the two plants that were completed later, Unit 2 of the Shika nuclear power plant and Unit 5 of the Hamaoka nuclear power plant. Both power plants were then throttled to ensure safe operation and should be able to operate again with nominal power after the complete revision of the turbine. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, all ABWR were shut down at least until work to increase earthquake security was completed.

safety

The most important aspect, which makes the ABWR as the first NPP ever to be a 3rd generation concept (which also belongs to the EPR , for example ), are some passive safety features. For example, a large expansion space for a core meltdown , which makes it easier to cool. There is also a passive containment cooling system, which is intended to compensate for the disadvantage of the containment , which is much smaller than the EPR (and thus its potential earlier failure or earlier venting ): The containment is crossed by four water pipes, in which the heat of a heated containment atmosphere passes through Exchange is to be discharged into a water basin outside the containment; the whole thing is designed as a cycle, no pumps are required.

Reactor block Net power
(original) 		Commercial operation Operation Factor
(as of 2018)
Hamaoka-5 1212 MW (1325 MW) January 18, 2005 23.3%
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-6 1315 MW(0000 MW) November 7, 1996 52.8%
Kashiwazaki-Kariwa-7 1315 MW(0000 MW) 2nd July 1996 48.4%
Shika-2 1108 MW (1304 MW) March 15, 2006 22.2%

ABWR-II

Previous incidents show the need for a better design of the safety systems in the event of an emergency shutdown and to avoid a GAU. The systems for regular operation are less affected. The next generation after the ABWR should be the ABWR-II, which was developed in Japan. Development began in 1991. The ABWR-II should have larger fuel bundles, better safety features in the event of an accident, shorter maintenance times and a more flexible fuel cycle. The number of fuel rods in the reactor core would be reduced by half compared to the ABWR. The control rods should be made larger so that a fuel bundle in the reactor core is assigned two control rods. The ABWR-II should have a better shutdown mode than its predecessor. The output would have been 1700 MW.

A confirmation of these model approaches has not yet been published. Rather, the project was effectively abandoned and replaced by the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) with almost entirely passive safety systems. The only ESBWR as the third block for the location of the North Anna nuclear power plant has been planned but has not yet been tackled for economic reasons .

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GE Energy - Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) (English)
  2. ↑ Completion of ABWR Plant (English; PDF; 94 kB)
  3. ↑ TOSHIBA - The "more advanced" ABWR ( Memento from September 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
  4. ↑ USA: Recertification of the GEH-ABWR approved ( Memento from November 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ Kernenergie.ch - The Reactor: Today's Reactor Types ( Memento from March 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ ABWR: Project Overview (English)
  7. ↑ IAEA - Nuclear Power Reactors in the World - Series 2 2008 (English; PDF; 1.7 MB)
  8. ↑ NRC - Issued Design Certification - Advanced Boiling-Water Reactor (ABWR) (English)
  9. ↑ NRC - South Texas Project, Units 3 and 4 Application (English)
  10. ↑ a b Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : Japan: Nuclear Power Reactors - Alphabetic (English)
  11. ↑ World Nuclear Association - Nuclear Power in Japan (English)
  12. ↑ Earthquake Report - JAIF ( Memento of October 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, English)
  13. ↑ NEPIS Manual
  14. ↑ a b Status report 98 - Advanced Boiling Water Reactor II (ABWR-II) (English)
  15. ↑ IAEA - Nuclear Power Technology Development Section ( Memento from February 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (English)