Optimal design of a small nuclear reactor for district heating and cogeneration

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In recent years, considerable attention has been given to the Canadian Arctic in the context of the increased possibilities of commercial and military navigation in the North-West Passage and of the exploitation of natural resources in this vast part of Canada. As a result, the number of permanent settlements will grow and, among them, there will be military bases and stations for assuring the sovereignty of Canada. All of these civilian and military settlements will need safe, reliable and low cost energy sources and the purpose of this research proposal is to investigate how nuclear energy can indeed provide the required energy both safely and reliably. The approach is through the developement of a small 25-50 MWth nuclear reactor and energy conversion systems for district heating and cogeneration that would retain as much as possible the inherent safety characteristics. This would allow the operation of the nuclear reactor on-site by a small crew of licensed operators requiring only a relatively modest amount of training. The reactor proposed here is a scaled-up version of the inherently safe "Near Boiling" (NB) reactor that the applicant's team has already designed for application on-board Victoria class submarines of the Canadian Navy. Of course, the applications of the new nuclear reactor are not limited to remote settlements in the Canadian Arctic, but also the reactor can provide heating energy and co-generation in cities, villages and military bases in the Southern part of Canada as well as in many settlements that are difficult to access, such as those located on islands and in remote parts of our country.