TEPLATOR: Residual heat dissipation using energy storage

TEPLATOR” stands for an innovative concept for district and process heating using already irradiated nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear powerplants (NPPs). There are several variants for TEPLATOR, one of which being a TEPLATOR DEMO. The TEPLATOR DEMO is operating at atmospheric pressure, has a three-loop design with three primary heat exchangers, three circulation pumps and has 55 fuel elements in the core. The primary coolant after leaving the fuel part enters the primary heat exchanger (HE I), where the heat is transferred to the intermediary (secondary) circuit heat transfer fluid (HTF). This secondary HTF transfers heat from HE I via secondary circuit into the secondary heat exchanger (HE II), where heat enters the actual heating (tertiary) circuit (i.e., supplying heat to end consumers). The HE I (i.e., the one between the primary and the secondary circuit) has two roles. During heat production, heat from primary circuit is transferred via HE I into the secondary circuit. From here it goes into the heating (tertiary) circuit and to the end consumer. During other operating conditions, when either the heating circuit is not in operation or the TEPLATOR is shut down, the HE I is used for removing the residual heat from the primary circuit. For this purpose, there is an energy storage circuit interconnected to the secondary circuit with two storage tanks, ‘hot’ one and ‘cold’ one. These two tanks are connected to each other via secondary side of the HE I and primary side of HE II. In need of residual heat removal, heat from primary circuit is transferred via HE I into the HTF flowing from the ‘cold’ to the ‘hot’ storage tank. Thus, no heat/energy is wasted.