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US-12626831-B2 - Distributed modular nuclear power plant layout architecture

US12626831B2US 12626831 B2US12626831 B2US 12626831B2US-12626831-B2

Abstract

A nuclear power plant includes a nuclear structure, a frontline support equipment, and a support structure. The nuclear structure includes, and is configured to protect from incurring damage due to a damaging event, at least one of a nuclear reactor or a nuclear fuel storage. The frontline support equipment is configured to perform a fundamental safety function. The support structure is spatially separate from the nuclear structure and includes an initiating support equipment configured to trigger the frontline support equipment to perform the fundamental safety function such that the fundamental safety function is performed independently of the initiating support equipment subsequent to the triggering. The support structure may be a non-protected structure that is not configured to protect the initiating support equipment from incurring damage due to the damaging event.

Inventors

  • Derek BASS
  • Dennis HENNEKE
  • Tatjana B. Kirby
  • Luben I. TODOROVSKI
  • Mark J. ENDRE

Assignees

  • GE-HITACHI NUCLEAR ENERGY AMERICAS LLC

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20231010

Claims (15)

  1. 1 . A nuclear power plant, comprising: a first cluster of buildings, the first cluster of buildings including a nuclear building, the nuclear building containing at least one of a nuclear reactor or a nuclear fuel storage pool, the nuclear building is configured to protect the at least one of the nuclear reactor or the nuclear fuel storage pool from incurring damage due to a damaging event, the damaging event originating externally to the nuclear building; and a second cluster of buildings, the second cluster of buildings including a support building, the support building being spatially separate from the nuclear building such that the support building is structurally independent of the nuclear building, the support building including an initiating support equipment, the initiating support equipment configured to trigger a frontline support equipment, the frontline support equipment is configured to continue to perform a fundamental safety function independently of the initiating support equipment once the frontline support equipment is initially triggered by the initiating support equipment, the fundamental safety function including at least one of controlling a reactivity of the nuclear reactor, cooling a reactor radioactive material in the nuclear reactor, cooling a stored radioactive material in the nuclear fuel storage pool, or confining a particular radioactive material within an enclosure of a container to suppress a release of the particular radioactive material from the container, wherein the first cluster of buildings includes the nuclear building and a separate first cluster building, the separate first cluster building spatially separate from the nuclear building such that the separate first cluster building is structurally independent of the nuclear building, the separate first cluster building including at least one of a reactor annex building, a fuel handling building, a fuel annex building, or any combination thereof, wherein the second cluster of buildings includes the support building and a separate second cluster building, the separate second cluster building spatially separate from the support building such that the separate second cluster building is structurally independent of the support building, the separate second cluster building including at least one of a transformer, an electrical supply from a balance of the nuclear power plant, a control room, an e-room including at least one of a switchgear, a unit substation, a motor control center, a protective relay, a battery system, an uninterruptible power supply, or an inverter, or any combination thereof, wherein the frontline support equipment is included within a building in the first cluster of buildings, wherein the first cluster of buildings and the second cluster of buildings are spatially separate from each other such that a smallest distance between a building of the first cluster of buildings and a building of the second cluster of buildings is at least 5 meters, wherein adjacent buildings of the first cluster of buildings are within 5 meters of each other, wherein adjacent buildings of the second cluster of buildings are within 5 meters of each other, and wherein the second cluster of buildings includes at least 80% of switchgears, unit substations, motor control centers, protective relays, battery systems, uninterruptible power supplies, and inverters in the nuclear power plant.
  2. 2 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the frontline support equipment is in the nuclear building.
  3. 3 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the initiating support equipment includes a manual shutdown device; a switchgear; an actuator; or a processor, a memory, and an interface that are electrically coupled via a bus, and the initiating support equipment is configured to trigger the frontline support equipment in response to the initiating support equipment receiving a signal from a detection equipment.
  4. 4 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the first cluster of buildings and the second cluster of buildings each include at least one first building configured to meet requirements for a first-tier Seismic Design Category (SDC) that is at least one of SDC-3, SDC-4, or SDC-5 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19, and at least one second building configured to meet requirements for a second-tier SDC that is at least one of Non-Seismic, SDC-1, or SDC-2 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19.
  5. 5 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the second cluster of buildings includes the e-room, the e-room includes modular electrical equipment buildings, the modular electrical equipment buildings are each road or rail shippable, and the modular electrical equipment buildings are mechanically fastened to a concrete slab.
  6. 6 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the nuclear building includes the nuclear reactor, the nuclear building is configured to meet requirements for a first-tier Seismic Design Category (SDC) that is at least one of SDC-3, SDC-4, or SDC-5 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19, the separate first cluster building includes a heat exchanger configured to transport heat from the nuclear reactor to perform useful work, and the separate first cluster building is configured to meet requirements for a second-tier SDC, the second-tier SDC is at least one of Non-Seismic, SDC-1, or SDC-2 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19.
  7. 7 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the nuclear building is configured to meet requirements for a first-tier Seismic Design Category (SDC) that is at least one of SDC-3, SDC-4, or SDC-5 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19, and the separate first cluster building is configured to meet requirements for the first-tier Seismic Design Category (SDC).
  8. 8 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein all structures in the nuclear power plant have a width or length that is less than 30 meters.
  9. 9 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the nuclear building includes a first basemat, and the separate first cluster building includes a second basemat that is separate from the first basemat of the nuclear building.
  10. 10 . The nuclear power plant of claim 1 , wherein the first cluster of buildings includes at least 80% of reactor vessels, fuel storage pools, tanks, pumps, fans, compressors, heat exchangers, valves, and pipes in the nuclear power plant.
  11. 11 . A method for constructing a nuclear power plant having a distributed modular nuclear power plant layout architecture, the method comprising: constructing a first cluster of buildings, the first cluster of buildings including a nuclear building, the nuclear building including at least one of a nuclear reactor or a nuclear fuel storage pool, the nuclear building is configured to protect the at least one of the nuclear reactor or the nuclear fuel storage pool from incurring damage due to an occurrence of a damaging event, the damaging event originating externally to the nuclear building; and constructing a second cluster of buildings, the second cluster of buildings including a support building that is spatially separate from the nuclear building such that the support building is structurally independent of the nuclear building, the support building including an initiating support equipment, the initiating support equipment configured to trigger a frontline support equipment, the frontline support equipment is configure to continue to perform a fundamental safety function independently of the initiating support equipment once the frontline support equipment is initially triggered by the initiating support equipment, the fundamental safety function including at least one of controlling a reactivity of the nuclear reactor, cooling a reactor radioactive material in the nuclear reactor, cooling a stored radioactive material in the nuclear fuel storage pool, or confining a particular radioactive material within an enclosure of a container to suppress a release of the particular radioactive material from the container, wherein the nuclear building and the support building are constructed at least partially concurrently, wherein the first cluster of buildings includes the nuclear building and a separate first cluster building, the separate first cluster building spatially separate from the nuclear building such that the separate first cluster building is structurally independent of the nuclear building, the separate first cluster building including at least one of a reactor annex building, a fuel handling building, a fuel annex building, or any combination thereof, wherein the second cluster of buildings includes the support building and a separate second cluster building, the separate second cluster building spatially separate from the support building such that the separate second cluster building is structurally independent of the support building, the separate second cluster building including at least one of a transformer, an electrical supply from a balance of the nuclear power plant, a control room, an e-room including at least one of a switchgear, a unit substation, a motor control center, a protective relay, a battery system, an uninterruptible power supply, or an inverter, or any combination thereof, wherein the frontline support equipment is included within a building in the first cluster of buildings, wherein the first cluster of buildings and the second cluster of buildings are spatially separate from each other such that a smallest distance between a building of the first cluster of buildings and a building of the second cluster of buildings is at least 5 meters, wherein adjacent buildings of the first cluster of buildings are within 5 meters of each other, wherein adjacent buildings of the second cluster of buildings are within 5 meters of each other, and wherein the second cluster of buildings includes at least 80% of switchgears, unit substations, motor control centers, protective relays, battery systems, uninterruptible power supplies, and inverters in the nuclear power plant.
  12. 12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the frontline support equipment is in the nuclear building.
  13. 13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the initiating support equipment includes a manual shutdown device; a switchgear; an actuator; or a processor, a memory, and an interface that are electrically coupled via a bus, and the initiating support equipment is configured to trigger the frontline support equipment in response to the initiating support equipment receiving a signal from a detection equipment.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first cluster of buildings and the second cluster of buildings each include at least one first building configured to meet requirements for a first-tier Seismic Design Category (SDC) that is at least one of SDC-3, SDC-4, or SDC-5 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19, and at least one second building configured to meet requirements for a second-tier SDC that is at least one of Non-Seismic, SDC-1, or SDC-2 according to at least one of ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 or ASCE/SEI 43-19.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the second cluster of buildings includes the e-room, the e-room includes modular electrical equipment buildings, the modular electrical equipment buildings are each road or rail shippable, and the modular electrical equipment buildings are mechanically fastened to a concrete slab.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 17/718,696, filed Apr. 12, 2022, which is a non-provisional application that claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 63/174,355, filed on Apr. 13, 2021, the contents of each of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety. BACKGROUND Field Example embodiments described herein relate in general to nuclear power plants and in particular to providing a nuclear power plant having a distributed modular layout architecture. Description of Related Art Traditional nuclear reactor buildings use a monolithic modular architecture where many of the auxiliary nuclear support systems, (e.g., coolant cleanup equipment, emergency core cooling systems, residual heat removal systems, emergency power supplies, etc.) are in near proximity to the nuclear reactor vessel and/or are within a common (“same”) structure (“building”) with the nuclear reactor (e.g., a nuclear reactor building, also referred to as a nuclear reactor containment building). This is traditionally done because some of the auxiliary nuclear support systems are relied upon to perform fundamental safety functions during and following external or specific internal events that are associated with damage being incurred by one or more portions of the nuclear power plant (including, for example, the nuclear reactor and/or nuclear fuel storage). Such events may be referred to herein as “damaging events.” SUMMARY According to some example embodiments, a nuclear power plant may include a nuclear structure, a frontline support equipment, and a support structure. The nuclear structure may include at least one of a nuclear reactor or a nuclear fuel storage. The nuclear structure may be a protected structure configured to protect the at least one of the nuclear reactor or the nuclear fuel storage from incurring damage due to a damaging event. The damaging event may originate externally to the protected structure. The damaging event may be associated with damage being incurred by at least a portion of the nuclear power plant. The frontline support equipment may be configured to perform a fundamental safety function. The fundamental safety function may include at least one of controlling a reactivity of the nuclear reactor, cooling a reactor radioactive material in the nuclear reactor, cooling a stored radioactive material in the nuclear fuel storage, or confining a particular radioactive material within an enclosure of a container or suitably filtering to suppress a release of the particular radioactive material from the container. The support structure may be spatially separate from the protected structure. The support structure may include an initiating support equipment. The initiating support equipment may be configured to trigger the frontline support equipment to perform the fundamental safety function such that the fundamental safety function is performed independently of the initiating support equipment subsequent to the triggering. The support structure may be a non-protected structure that is not configured to protect the initiating support equipment from incurring damage due to the damaging event. The initiating support equipment may be not configured to resist incurring damage due to the damaging event. The initiating support equipment may be configured to trigger the frontline support equipment to perform the fundamental safety function in response to detection of the damaging event and prior to the initiating support equipment incurring damage due to the damaging event, such that the fundamental safety function is performed independently of damage incurred by the initiating support equipment due to the damaging event. The nuclear structure may be configured to meet requirements for a first-tier Seismic Design Category (SDC) that is at least one of SDC-3, SDC-4, or SDC-5 according to ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 and/or ASCE/SEI 43-19. The support structure may be configured to meet requirements for a second-tier SDC that is different from the first-tier SDC. The second-tier Seismic Design Category may be at least one of Non-Seismic, SDC-1, or SDC-2 according to ANSI/ANS-2.26-2004 and/or ASCE/SEI 43-19. The nuclear power plant may further include a first cluster of structures associated with mechanical equipment, the first cluster including the nuclear structure. The nuclear power plant may further include a second cluster of structures associated with electrical equipment, instrumentation equipment, control equipment, and/or communication equipment, the second cluster including the support structure. A majority of mechanical equipment of the nuclear power plant may be located within the first cluster of structures and a majority of electrical equipment, instrumentation equipment, control equipment, and/or communication equipment of the nuclear power plant may be located within the second cluster of structures. The first and second clusters may