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Countries Go Nuclear for the First Time

In the 1980’s countries like Egypt, Turkey, and Indonesia seriously considered constructing their first nuclear power plants. Because of the Chernobyl disaster and financial realities, such construction was delayed until now. All three countries have maintained relatively large nuclear research facilities and staffs. Recent changes in economic and environmental conditions have revitalized the idea of nuclear power plant construction, not only in these countries but also in other regions, such as:

- North Africa and the Middle East - Libya, Algeria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and a number of Gulf States have asked for IAEA's support in constructing their first nuclear power plants.
- The Far East - Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia have started planning their nuclear projects and building up technical staff.
- Developed countries like Australia and Israel are seriously considering nuclear power because of concerns over energy diversity and greenhouse effects.

The most likely choices for new nuclear power plant construction will be from the so-called Generation III-plus or evolutionary advanced light water reactor (ALWR) designs. The candidates are Areva EPR, Westinghouse AP1000, Mitsubishi APWR, Korean Advanced PWR (System 80+), GE ABWR and ESBWR, and Russian VVER1000.

Each nation’s decision must be individual based upon economics and perhaps politics with the different vendor countries. Nevertheless, the decision-makers will need to carefully distinguish "devised safe" versus"inherent safe"; "forced" versus "natural" circulation cooling; "active" versus "passive" emergency core cooling systems; and "gravitational drain" versus "automated depressurization" devices.  They are also interested in how the advanced designs reduce the so-called “core degradation frequency” (CDF) of existing LWR’s from the order of 10-4 to 10-5 or even 10-6 per year.

In PCTRAN, we have all of the above plant modules.  By modeling each component’s size, geometric location, and control logic faithfully, complicated two-phase flow and natural draft phenomena are reproduced vividly in animation. PCTRAN is a powerful tool in three aspects:

1. Training the first-generation technical staff - complementing classroom lectures in reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics, and plant technology, PCTRAN is a “live” teaching aid for demonstrating concepts in delayed neutrons, criticality, chain reaction, reactivity feedback, radioactive decay, etc.
2. Evaluation between the various designs - MST is independent from all vendors so it provides unbiased comparison.
3. Demonstration to non-technical managers and politicians – Graphic animation makes it easy for the layman to understand the technical differences between designs.

To achieve the above objectives, you need more than one plant module. Considering the financial constraints of developing countries in their first nuclear project, we will offer a discounted package price. Please contact us for details.