Optimal Design of a Coupling System of Heat Pipe Cooled Reactor With Battery Energy Storage System

Abstract Micro nuclear reactors have been seen as one of the potential nuclear energy solutions to carbon emission reduction due to their compact design, flexibility, and economic merits. Heat-pipe-cooled nuclear reactors (HPR) can achieve attention due to their avoidance of single-point failure, passive core heat removal capability, and modularity. If applied in remote grid communities or mining operations, the HPRs will face the challenges of high variability in energy demand and relatively long response time in reactors. This paper presents a conceptual design for a hybrid energy system that combines HPRs with a battery-based energy storage system. The system models are set for the reactor-based hybrid system, which includes the core, heat pipe, Brayton energy conversion system, and battery system. Evaluation is performed on the HPR-based hybrid system to examine its responsiveness to time-varying energy demands. The result shows that the HPR-battery hybrid energy system can significantly increase the load following performance and avoid the abrupt power change appearing in the HPR.