Icone24-60336

Proceedings of the 2016 24th International Conference on Nuclear Engineering ICONE24 June 26-30, 2016, Charlotte, North Carolina

ICONE24-60336

STUDY ON CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN NUCLEAR-POWER INDUSTRY OF UKRAINE

Alexander Zvorykin Igor Pioro Raj Panchal National Technical University of Faculty of Energy Systems and Faculty of Energy Systems and Ukraine Nuclear Science Nuclear Science “Kiev Polytechnic Institute” University of Ontario Institute of University of Ontario Institute of Technology Technology 37 Prospect Peremogy, Kiev 03056 2000 Simcoe Str. N., Oshawa ON 2000 Simcoe Str. N., Oshawa ON Ukraine L1K 7K4 Canada L1K 7K4 Canada E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]

Keywords: Nuclear Power Plant, Thermal Efficiency, Pressurized-Water Reactor, Plant Systems

ABSTRACT left without the basic and vital source of electricity generation. Nuclear power in Ukraine is the most important source of Also, current problems of Ukrainian NPPs are: 1) lower electricity generation. Currently, Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs) capacity factors (around 80%) compared to those in other generate 45.5% of the total electricity in the country followed countries (~90%); 2) uncertainties with nuclear-fuel supply due with coal generation ‒ 38%, gas generation 9.6% and the rest is to political situation; and 3) service and repairs of relatively old based on renewable sources, mainly on hydro power plants – reactors. 5.9%. Nuclear-power industry is based on 4 NPPs including the largest one in Europe ‒ Zaporizhzhya NPP with about 6,000 1. INTRODUCTION MWel gross installed capacity. It is well known that electrical-power generation is the key factor for advances in industry, agriculture, technology and the These NPPs are equipped with 13 VVER-1000 and 2 VVER- level of living (for details, see Table 1 and Fig. 1) [1]. Also, 440 Russian-design Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) with strong power industry with diverse energy sources is very the total gross installed capacity of 13,800 MWel. Layout of important for country independence. In general, electrical these NPPs, thermodynamic diagram and thermal efficiencies energy can be generated from: 1) burning mined and refined are provided. Thermal efficiencies have been calculated with energy sources such as coal, natural gas, oil, and nuclear; and the IAEA Desalination Thermodynamic Optimization 2) harnessing energy sources such as hydro, biomass, wind, Programme DE-TOP and compared to the actual ones. geothermal, solar, and wave power. Today, the main sources for electrical-energy generation (for details, see Fig. 1a) are: 1) Two of these reactors have been built and put into operation in thermal power – primarily using coal (~40%) and 70-s, ten in 80-s, one in 90-s and just two in 2004. Therefore, secondarily - natural gas (~23%); 2) “large” hydraulic power based on an analysis of the world power reactors in terms of from dams and rivers (~17%) and 3) nuclear power from their maximum years of operation (currently, the oldest reactors various reactor designs (~11%). The balance of the energy are 45-year old) several projections have been made for future sources is from using oil (~4%) and renewable sources such as of the nuclear-power industry in Ukraine. Unfortunately, all biomass, wind, geothermal and solar (~5%), and have visible these projections are quite pessimistic. impact just in some countries (for details, see Fig. 1). In addition, energy sources, such as wind and solar, and some There is a possibility that around 2030‒2035 the vast majority others, like wave-power, are intermittent from depending on of the Ukrainian reactors will be shut down, and Ukraine can be Mother Nature [1].

1 Copyright © 2016 by ASME Table 1. Electrical-Energy Consumption (EEC) per capita in selected countries (listed here just for reference purposes) [2, 3]. No Country Population Electrical Energy Consumption Year HDI* Millions TW h/year W/Capita Rank Value 1 Norway 5 115.6 2603 2013 1 0.944 2 Australia 23 213.5 1114 2013 2 0.933 3 USA 317.8 4686.4 1683 2014 5 0.914 4 Germany 80.7 582.5 861 2013 6 0.911 5 Canada 35.3 499.9 1871 2014 8 0.902 6 UK 63.7 323.3 622 2012 14 0.892 7 South Korea 50.2 455.1 1038 2013 15 0.891 8 Japan 127.1 859.7 774 2013 17 0.890 9 France 65.8 462.9 804 2014 20 0.884 10 Russia 146 1016.5 808 2014 57 0.778 11 EU 503 3,037 688 2012 - - 12 Ukraine 45 182 461 2012 78 0.740 13 Brazil 201 455.8 268 2013 79 0.744 14 China 1,361 5463.8 458 2013 91 0.719 15 World (average) 7,156 19,320 313 2005-2012 103 0.694 16 India 1,243 1111.7 90 2014 135 0.586 17 Afghanistan 30.4 0.2311 1 2012 169 0.468 18 Chad 10.3 0.093 1 2009 184 0.372 19 Niger 17.1 0.63 4 2012 187 0.337

* .

** HDI – Human Development Index by United Nations (UN); HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. HDI is calculated by the following formula: √ , where LEI - Life Expectancy Index, EI - Education Index, and II - Income Index. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad human-development categories, each of which comprises ~42 countries: 1) Very high – 42 countries; 2) high – 43; 3) medium – 42; and 4) low – 42 (Wikipedia, 2014).

It should be noted that the following two parameters are important characteristics of any power plant: 1) overall (gross) Therefore, thermal power plants, NPPs and large hydro power or net efficiency1 of a plant; and 2) Capacity factor2 of a plant. plants are considered as the basis for any electrical grid as concentrated and reliable sources of electricity generation. Usually, thermal- and nuclear-power plants operate semi- Also, NPPs have essentially negligible operating emissions of continuously, because of a high capital cost and low operating carbon dioxide into atmosphere compared to alternate thermal costs. The relative costs of electrical energy generated by any plants. Due to that this source of energy is considered as the system are not only dependent on building capital costs and most viable one for electrical generation for the next 50 – 100 operating expenses, but also dependent on the capacity factor. years [1] (see Table 2). The higher the capacity factor the better, as generating costs fall proportionally. However, some renewable-energy sources with exception of large hydro-electric power plants can have significantly lower capacity factors compared to those of thermal- and nuclear-power plants [1].

1 Gross efficiency of a unit during a given period of time is the ratio of the gross electrical energy generated by a unit to the energy consumed during the same period by the same unit. The difference between gross and net efficiencies is internal needs for electrical energy of a power plant, which might be not so small (5% or even more). 2 The net capacity factor of a power plant is the ratio of the actual output of a power plant over a period of time (usually, during a year) and its potential output if it had operated at full nameplate capacity the entire time. To calculate the capacity factor, the total amount of energy a plant produced during a period of time should be divided by the amount of energy the plant would have produced at the full capacity. Capacity factors vary significantly depending on the type of a plant.

2 Copyright © 2016 by ASME 1.0 Spain USA Norway 1.0 Germany Very High HDI Canada Poland Japan  20% 0.9 High HDI Italy UK Medium HDI S. Korea Iceland Low HDI Brazil France 0.8 0.8 Argentina Kuwait Colombia Mexico Russia Iran Ukraine 0.7 Philippines Ukraine China Turkey Indonesia 0.6 Equatorial South Africa 0.6 Guinea Kenya Thailand Tanzania India Egypt Nigeria Vietnam HDIValue 0.5 Pakistan 0.4 Afghanistan Bangladesh Iraq Ethiopia Zimbabwe Human Development Human Index (HDI) 0.4 HDI  0.2581 0.088 ln EEC Burma Sierra Mozambique 0.2 Leone 0.3 Chad Democratic Republic of the Congo Niger 0.2 0.0 1 10 100 1000 10000 1 10 100 1000 10000 Electrical-Energy Consumption, W/Capita Electrical-Energy Consumption (EEC), W/Capita

(a) (b)

Figure 1. Effect of Electrical-Energy Consumption (EEC) on Human Development Index (HDI) for all countries of the world (based on data from [3, 4]): (a) graph with selected countries identified and (b) HDI correlation (in general, the HDI correlation might be an exponential rise to maximum (1), but based on the current data it is a straight line in regular – log coordinates).

(a) World: Population 7,156 millions; EEC 19,320 (b) Germany: Population 81 millions; EEC 582.5 TW h/year or TW h/year or 313 W/Capita; HDI 0.694 or HDI Rank 861 W/Capita; HDI 0.911 or HDI Rank 6. 103.

(c) Ukraine: Population 45 millions; EEC 182 (d) France: Population 65.8 millions; EEC 463 TW h/year or TW h/year or 461 W/Capita; HDI 0.740 or HDI Rank 804 W/Capita; HDI 0.884 or HDI Rank 20. 78. (Installed capacities: Thermal PPs – 64%; NPPs -27% and Hydro PPs – 9%) Figure 2. Electricity generation by source in the world and selected countries (data from 2010 – 2014 presented here just for reference purposes) (Wikipedia, 2015).

Table 2. Number of nuclear-power reactors by nation (11 nations with the largest installed nuclear-power capacities) as per March of 2016 [4] and before the Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster (March of 2011) [5]. No Nation No. of units (PWRs/BWRs) Net installed capacity, Changes in number of reactors from GWel March 2011 As of Before As of Before March March March March 2016 2011 2016 2011 1 USA 99 (65/34) 104 101 103 ↓ Decreased by 5 reactors 2 France 58 (58/-) 58 63 63 No changes 3 Japan3 43 (20/23) 54 40 47 ↓ Decreased by 6 reactors 4 Russia 34 (18/-/151/12) 32 25 23 ↑ Increased by 1 reactor 5 China 28 (26/-/23) 13 24 10 ↑ Increased by 9 reactors 6 S. Korea 24 (20/-/43) 20 22 18 ↑ Increased by 3 reactors 7 Canada 19 (-/-/193) 22 13 15 ↓ Decreased by 3 reactors 8 Ukraine 15 (15/-) 15 13 13 No changes 9 Germany 8 (6/2) 17 11 20 ↓ Decreased by 8 reactors 10 Sweden 10 (7/3) 10 9.3 9.3 No changes 11 UK 15 (1/-/144) 19 8.7 10 ↓ Decreased by 3 reactors In total 352 364 327 331 ↓ Decreased by 12 reactors Arrows mean decrease or increase in a number of reactors. 1 No of LGRs; 2 LMFBRs; 3 PHWRs; 4 AGRs.

3 Currently, i.e., in April of 2016, only four reactors are in operation. However, more reactors are planned to be put into operation in the nearest future.

4 Copyright © 2016 by ASME 2. CURRENT AND FUTURE STATUS OF Analysis of the Ukrainian power industry shows that two of UKRAINIAN POWER INDUSTRY these 15th reactors have been built and put into operation in 70- Ukraine has about 45 million people and is the largest s, ten in 80-s, one in 90-s and just two – in 2004. Also, it European country by a territory with exception of Russia. should be noted current problems of Ukrainian NPPs, which Ukraine consumes about 182 TW h/year electrical energy from are: 1) lower capacity factors (around 80%) compared to those various sources (mainly from nuclear - ~45.5 % and coal – 38% in other countries (~90%) [1]; 2) uncertainties with nuclear-fuel (for details, see Fig. 2 c)) or has about 461 W/Capita (see Table supply due to political situation; and 3) service and repairs of 1 and Fig. 1). Due to that Ukraine is currently on the 78th place relatively old reactors. by HDI in the world, which is at the lower end of the second group of countries with High HDI (countries from 43rd and up Based on an analysis of the world power reactors in terms of to 85th places by HDI). their maximum years of operation (currently, the oldest reactors are 45-year old [1]) several projections have been made for The Ukrainian nuclear-power industry consists of 4 NPPs with future of the nuclear-power industry in Ukraine (for details, see the total of 15 reactors (see Table 3 and Fig. 3). Fig. 6). Unfortunately, all these projections are quite Thermodynamic layout of a VVER-1000 NPP is shown in Fig. pessimistic. 4. Major parameters of the Russian-design PWRs – VVERs operated in Ukraine are listed in Table 4 and T-s diagram of the There is a possibility that around 2030‒2035 the vast majority VVER-1000 turbine cycle – in Fig. 5. of the Ukrainian reactors will be shut down, and Ukraine can be left without the basic and vital source of electricity generation.

Table 3. General information on Ukrainian NPPs (http://www.energoatom.kiev.ua/en/). Ukrainian NPP Unit # Reactor Power Year

MWel Startup Shutdown (based on original 30-year term) Rivne 1 VVER- 440 (B-213 type) 440 1977 2007 (ext. 2030) (planned 2 more reactors) 2 VVER- 440 (B-213 type) 440 1978 2008 (ext. 2030) 3 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1989 2019 4 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 2004 2034 South-Ukraine 1 VVER-1000 (“small series”) 1000 1982 2012 (ext. 2023) (planned 1 more reactor) 2 VVER-1000 (“small series”) 1000 1985 2015 (ext. 2025) 3 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1989 2019 Khmel’nitsky 1 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1984 2014 (to be extended) (planned 2 more reactors) 2 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 2004 2034 Zaporizhzhya 1 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1985 2015 (to be extended) (largest in Europe) 2 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1986 2016 (to be extended) 3 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1987 2017 4 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1989 2019 5 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1989 2019 6 VVER-1000 (model 320) 1000 1995 2025 Explanations to the Table: ext. – extended till

Figure 3. Shutdown year per each Ukrainian reactor based on possible 45-year extension.

Separator - superheater

P = 5.88 MPa P = 1.15 MPa 8 o 9 T = 274oC 0 T = 250 C

IPT LPT Condenser 1 2 3 Pc = 3.9 kPa 4 5 6 7 Deaerator Steam Generator

Pump o Tfw = 223 C x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x Feed 6 x7 Pump

HPH 3 HPH 2 HPH 1 LPH 4 LPH 3 LPH 2 LPH 1

Figure 4. Thermodynamic layout of 1000-MWel VVER-1000 PWR NPP [7].

Thermal power, MWth 1375 3000

Electrical power, MWel 440 1000 Thermal efficiency (gross)*, % 32.0 33.0 Coolant pressure, MPa 12.3 15.7 Coolant flow, t/h 42,600 80,000 Coolant temperature, C 270/298 290/322 Average heat flux, MW/m2 0.378 0.545 Steam flow rate, t/h 2700 5880 Steam pressure, MPa 4.6 6.48 Steam temperature, C 258.8 280.7 Core: Diameter/Height, m/m 3.84/11.8 4.5/10.9

Equivalent diameter of core, m 2.88 3.12 Figure 5. T–s diagram for a VVER-1000 turbine cycle. Fuel enrichment (max), % 3.6 4.3 No. of fuel assemblies 349 151 No. of rods in fuel assembly 126 317 * Thermal efficiencies have been calculated with the IAEA Desalination Thermodynamic Optimization Programme DE-TOP and compared to the actual ones.

Analysis of the Ukrainian thermal-power industry shows that 8 large thermal power plants have been built in 60s, 9 – in 70s, Of course, NPPs require to be supported with fast-response and 3 in 80s. Due to this, the vast majority of them quite old thermal power plants, which will cover peaks and drops in and not very efficient plants. electricity consumption per day. Therefore, Ukraine has to move to modern high-efficiency thermal power plants such as Therefore, Ukraine has to move quickly with building new combined-cycle power plants (combination of Brayton gas- NPPs with modern reactors. Interesting point here is that turbine cycle (fuel – natural gas or LNG; combustion-products Ukraine has its own resources of uranium (up to 800 tonnes per parameters at the gas-turbine inlet: Tin≈1650°C) and Rankine year, which is about 30% of the country’s requirements) and steam-turbine cycle (steam parameters at the turbine inlet: own resources of Zirconium. In addition, there are ten Tin≈620°C (Tcr=374°C)) with gross thermal efficiencies of up to scientific-research institutes related to nuclear 62% and/or supercritical-pressure coal-fired power plants science/engineering, nuclear energy, fuel and waste (Rankine-cycle steam inlet turbine parameters: Pin≈25–38 MPa management. Based on that Ukraine might consider as an (Pcr=22.064 MPa), Tin≈540-625°C (Tcr=374°C) and option to build CANDU reactors, which operate with natural Treheat≈540-625°C) with thermal efficiencies of up to 55%. uranium. Through that Ukraine has a possibility to develop its own closed fuel cycle and to have more independent and diversified nuclear-power industry.

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8 Copyright © 2016 by ASME x steam quality Subscripts c condenser cr critical el electrical fw feedwater in inlet th thermal Acronyms AGR Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor BWR Boiling Water Reactor DE-TOP DEesalination Thermodynamic Optimization Program EEC Electrical-Energy Consumption ext. extended HDI Human Development Index HPH High Pressure Heater IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency IPT Intermediate Pressure Turbine LGR Light-water Graphite-moderated Reactor LMFBR Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor LNG Liquefied Natural Gas LPH Low Pressure Heater LPT Low Pressure Turbine NPP Nuclear Power Plant PHWR Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor PP Power Plant PWR Pressurized Water Reactor VVER Water-cooled Water-moderated Power Reactor (in (e) Russian abbreviations) Figure 6. Possible scenarios of future of the nuclear-power industry in Ukraine. 5. REFERENCES [1] Pioro, I. and Duffey, R., 2015. Nuclear Power as a Basis 3. CONCLUSIONS for Future Electricity Generation, ASME Journal of 1. Currently, Ukraine covers its needs for electricity through Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, Vol. 1, No. using nuclear, thermal and hydro power plants. 1, 19 pages. Free download from: 2. However, nuclear and thermal power plants are quite old http://nuclearengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ and less efficient than modern NPPs and thermal plants. Also, article.aspx?articleID=2085849. hydro resources almost used completely. [2] Human Development Report, 2013. UN Development 3. A number of projections have been made on future status of Programme, March 14th, 216 pages. nuclear power in Ukraine, which currently, generates about [3] The World Fact Book, 2013. CIA, USA, 45-50% of electricity in the country, are pessimistic. All of https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world- them show that within 2030s-2040s quite significant drop in factbook/geos/ca.html. nuclear-power electricity generation is quite possible if urgent [4] Nuclear News, 2016, March, Publication of American measures are not taken. Nuclear Society (ANS), pp. 35-67. 4. These measures should include, of course, extension of [5] Nuclear News, 2011, March, Publication of American current NPPs terms of operation, but the most important will Nuclear Society (ANS), pp. 45-78. be building new NPPs with reactors from various nuclear [6] Grigor’ev, V.A. and Zorin, V.M., Editors, 1988. Thermal vendors and building modern high-efficiency thermal power and Nuclear Power Plants. Handbook, (In Russian), 2nd plants. edition, Energoatomizdat Publishing House, Moscow, Russia, 625 pages. 4. NOMENCLATURE [7] Dragunov, A., Saltanov, Eu., Pioro, I., Kirillov, P., and Duffey, R., 2015. Power Cycles of Generation III and P pressure, Pa III+ Nuclear Power Plants, ASME Journal of Nuclear s specific entropy, J/kg K Engineering and Radiation Science, Vol. 1, No. 2, 10 T temperature, °C pages.