The use of nuclear reactors for high-temperature power-technological industrial processes

Conclusions

Arising from the expected scales of development of high-temperature and power-capacity industrial establishments, and also from the reserves and disposition of fuel resources, it can be confirmed that the use of nuclear fuel for these factories can be completely justified. In this case, the actual economic expediency will depend on a sufficient level of technical reliability of the high-temperature complexes and nuclear reactors. The steam catalytic conversion of methane — which is one of the main links of the technological cycle for the large-scale production plants in the chemical industry for obtaining ammonia, methanol, higher alcohols, etc. — is in the maximum state of preparedness for achievement, based on the utilization of high-temperature heat from nuclear reactors. The conversion of methane for the chemical industry may become the technical basis for the introduction of nuclear reactors into ferrous metallurgical processes, the conversion of energy carriers and the production of hydrogen. The main technical problems lie in the field of transfer of the high-temperature heat from the core to the working space for carrying out the technological process, while observing the conditions of radiation safety of the production plant, the personnel and the environment. The search for an effective solution of the problem will be accomplished advantageously both in the direction of development of heat-transfer technical methods — which should allow gas-cooled nuclear reactors to be used for industrial technology — and also in the direction of development of new types of high-temperature nuclear reactors, directly oriented toward their introduction into industrial technology, e.g., based on the removal and transfer of heat from the core by radiative heat exchange, by means of a large-celled solid coolant.

A preliminary estimate has shown that the incorporation of high-temperature nuclear reactors in industrial technology can be accompanied by a positive economic effect, if the specific capital investments in them do not exceed the specific capital investments in the power reactors of nuclear power stations by more than a factor of 1.5–2.0.