GE BWR explained

GE BWR
(General Electric Boiling Water Reactor)
Concept:Light water reactor (LWR)
Design:General Electric
Maker:General Electric
Generation:Generation I (BWR-1)
Generation II
Generation III (ABWR)
Generation III+ (ESBWR)
Reactor Line:BWR
Status:83 reactors built, 67 reactors operational
Fuel Type:LEU_MOX
Fuel State:Solid
Spectrum:thermal
Control:Control rods
Coolant:Liquid (water)
Moderator:Light water
Thermal:530 MWth (BWR-1)
1500 MWth (BWR-2)
2400 MWth (BWR-3)
3000 MWth (BWR-4)
3100 MWth (BWR-5)
3400 MWth (BWR-6)
4000 MWth (ABWR)
4500 MWth (ESBWR)
Electric:160 MWe (BWR-1)
650 MWe (BWR-2)
460 MWe (BWR-3)
784 MWe (BWR-4)
1050 MWe (BWR-5)
1150 MWe (BWR-6)
1400 MWe (ABWR)
1600 MWe (ESBWR)
Use:Generation of electricity

General Electric's BWR product line of boiling water reactors represents the designs of a relatively large (~18%)[1] percentage of the commercial fission reactors around the world.

The progenitor of the BWR line was the 5 MW Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), brought online in October 1957. Six design iterations, BWR-1 through BWR-6, were introduced between 1955 and 1972.

This was followed by the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) introduced in the 1990s and the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) introduced in the early 2010s.

As of August 2018, 83 reactors of this design family have been built, of which 67 reactors are operational.

The design garnered world attention in the aftermath of the INES level 7 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of 11 March 2011. GE had been a major contractor to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, which consisted of six boiling water reactors of GE design. The reactors for Units 1, 2, and 6 were supplied by General Electric, the other three by Toshiba and Hitachi. Unit 1 was a 460 MW boiling water reactor from the BWR-3 design iteration introduced in 1965 and constructed in July 1967.

After the plant became severely damaged in the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, loss of reactor core cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination in Units 1, 2 and 3 between 12 and 15 March. Safe operation of this reactor design family depends on continued coolant flow at all times during operation. A reactor after a full-power shutdown, may require active cooling of decay heat from long-lived radioactive isotopes for a year or more.

History

The progenitor of the BWR line was the 5 MW Vallecitos Boiling Water Reactor (VBWR), brought online in October 1957.

BWR-1

BWR-2

BWR-3

BWR-4

BWR-5

BWR-6

ABWR

ESBWR

Fuel Rod Bundles

GE-2

GE-3

GE-4

GE-5

GE-6 & 7

GE-8

GE-9

Containment

See also: Boiling water reactor safety systems.

Mark I

A drywell containment building which resembles an inverted lightbulb above the wetwell which is a steel torus containing water.

Mark II

Described as an "over-under" configuration with the drywell forming a truncated cone on a concrete slab. Below is a cylindrical suppression chamber made of concrete rather than just sheet metal.

Mark III

The GE Mark III Containment-system is a single barrier pressure containment and multi-barrier fission containment system, consisting of the containment vessel plus associated dry- and wetwell (pressure and fission barriers), the external shield building of it, the auxiliary building and the fuel building, all of which are normally kept at negative pressure which prevents the egress of fission products.

Features of the containment :

Advantages

Disadvantages

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Nuclear Power Reactors in the World – 2015 Edition. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 26 October 2017.
  2. Moore, R.S., and K.J. Notz. Physical Characteristics of GE (General Electric) BWR (boiling-Water Reactor) Fuel Assemblies. United States: N. p., 1989. Web. doi:10.2172/5898210.. Web.ornl.gov. 5 April 2017. 10.2172/5898210. 1989. Moore. R.S.. Notz. K.J.. free.
  3. News: Hylko. James M.. Peltier. Robert. The Evolution of the ESBWR. 24 March 2018. POWER Magazine. 1 November 2010.
  4. Web site: Boiling Water Reactor Basics. Edf.com. 11 January 2014.
  5. Web site: BWR/6 General Description of a Boiling Water Reactor. 24 March 2018. 5 February 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180205061139/http://www4.ncsu.edu/~doster/NE405/Manuals/BWR6GeneralDescription.pdf. dead.