Design of small reduced-moderation water reactor

Okubo, Tsutomu; Iwamura, Takamichi; Takeda, Renzo*; Moriya, Kumiaki*; Yamauchi, Toyoaki*; Aritomi, Masanori*

A design study on a 300MWe class small Reduced-Moderation Water Reactor (RMWR) has been performed, based on the experienced LWR technology. The core can be cooled by the natural circulation and can achieve a conversion ratio of 1.01, a negative void reactivity coefficient, a core average burn-up of 65 GWd/t and a cycle length of 25 months. The system has been simplified as much as possible by introducing the passive safety components, in order to reduce the construction cost per electric power output overcoming “the scale demerit" for a small reactor comparing with the large one. The results show a 1.35 times higher cost than for the ABWR case, but suggest the possible lower cost when the effects such as the mass production are taken into account.