SECURE Nuclear District Heating Plant

Abstract

The role foreseen for the SECURE (Safe Environmentally Clean Urban REactor) nuclear district heating plant is to provide the baseload heating needs of primarily the larger and medium size urban centers that are outside the range of waste heat supply from conventional nuclear power stations. The rationale of the SECURE concept is that the simplicity in design and the inherent safety advantages due to the use of low temperatures and pressures should make such reactors economically feasible in much smaller unit sizes than nuclear power reactors and should make their urban location possible.

It is felt that the present design should be safe enough to make urban underground location possible without restriction according to any criteria based on actual risk evaluation. From the environmental point of view, this is a municipal heat supply plant with negligible pollution. Waste heat is negligible, gaseous radioactivity release is negligible, and there is no liquid radwaste release. Economic comparisons show that the SECURE plant is competitive with current fossil-fueled alternatives. Expected future increase in energy raw material prices will lead to additional energy cost advantages to the SECURE plant.