ref-1

Nuclear Engineering and Design 368 (2020) 110767
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Nuclear Engineering and Design

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nucengdes
A review of research and development of supercritical carbon dioxide T

Brayton cycle technology in nuclear engineering applications
Pan Wua, , Yunduo Maa, Chuntian Gaoa, Weihua Liua, Jianqiang Shana,b, Yanping Huangc,
⁎
Junfeng Wangc, Dan Zhangd, Xu Rand

a
School of Nuclear Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, No. 28 Xianning West Road, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China
b
The State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
c
CNNC Key Laboratory on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics Technology, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China
d
Science and Technology on Reactor System Design Technology Laboratory, Nuclear Power Institute of China, Chengdu 610041, China
ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT
Keywords: Supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton cycle has many advantages including high power conversion ef-
Brayton cycle ficiency at mediate temperature, compact configuration, high system simplicity and low efficiency loss using dry
Supercritical carbon dioxide cooling, which make it well suited to nuclear reactor applications. S-CO2 power cycle can be used as power
Nuclear engineering conversion system for almost all the nuclear power systems including small modular reactor (SMR), Generation
Safety analysis
IV reactor and fusion reactor. It can also be used as a self-propellant and self-sustaining decay heat removal
Control strategy
system to enhance the safety of existing commercial nuclear power plant. An update of research activities is
needed to identify the unique research interests and challenges of S-CO2 power cycle based nuclear applications.
This paper is a review of the research activities which have been carried out for S-CO2 power cycle based nuclear
applications worldwide. The characteristics of S-CO2 power cycle are presented first to explain the distinctive
features of this power cycle. Then the progresses in the experimental study of integrated S-CO2 Brayton cycle test
loops are reviewed comprehensively to shed a light on its technical maturity in laboratory. Moreover, a review of
various research areas concerning S-CO2 power cycle working as power conversion system or heat removal
system for nuclear applications are carried out.
Based on these review works, the challenges and perspectives are discussed and highlighted in the paper.
Conclusions can be achieved that S-CO2 Brayton cycle is a promising option to broaden nuclear energy’s ap-
plication scope.
1. Introduction fast reactor (SFR) in 1968. Strub and Frieder (1970) used the re-
compression CO2 cycle to indirectly convert the thermal power of he-
S-CO2 Brayton cycle has gained numerous attentions due to its lium cooled fast reactor into electricity in 1970. In these early days,
distinctive features of small turbomachinery, simple cycle layout, high though the special thermo-property of CO2 and the advantages of S-CO2
cycle efficiency at mediate turbine inlet temperature, low efficiency loss Brayton cycle had been realized by these scientists, the restrictions of
using dry cooling. S-CO2 Brayton cycle has a long history. Early in development of CO2 turbomachinery and compact heat exchanger
1948, a partial condensation CO2 Brayton cycle was proposed and pa- slowed down the widespread use of S-CO2 Brayton cycle. In 2000s,
tented by Sulzer Bros (Dostal, 2004). In the 1960s, the advantages of S- further progress in Heatric’s printed circuit heat exchanger technology
CO2 Brayton cycle were realized by more and more researchers, like and CO2 gas turbine technology, as well as the release of a series of
Angelino from Italy (Angelino, 1968) and Feher from United States research works applying S-CO2 brayton cycle on nuclear engineering
(Feher, 1968), who focused on cycle efficiency optimization of different which were conducted by MIT (Dostal, 2004; Pope, 2004; Carstens
layouts. In the 1970s, the research interests shifted from cycle ther- et al., 2006; Dostal and Kulhanek, 2009), ANL (Moisseytsev and
modynamic simulation to detailed design studies, especially for its Sienicki, 2006, 2008, 2009), SNL (Wright et al., 2010; Pasch et al.,
applications in nuclear engineering and shipboard applications (Dostal, 2012) in united states and Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan (Kato
2004). Dievot (1968) proposed to couple CO2 power cycle with sodium et al., 2004), made the study of S-CO2 Brayton cycle enjoy a revival.
⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: wupan2015@xjtu.edu.cn (P. Wu).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nucengdes.2020.110767
Received 16 March 2020; Received in revised form 10 July 2020; Accepted 11 July 2020
Available online 24 July 2020
0029-5493/ © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
P. Wu, et al. Nuclear Engineering and Design 368 (2020) 110767
Abbreviation KIER Korea Institute of Energy Research

LPC Low Pressure Compressor
AGR Advanced Gas Reactor LPT Low Pressure Turbine
ANL Argonne National Laboratory LTR Low Temperature Recuperator
BMPC Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation MC Main Compressor
CHNG China HuaNeng Group MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CIP Compressor Inlet Pressure MSR Molten Salt Reactor
CIT Compressor Inlet Temperature ORC Organic Rankine Cycle
CSP Concentrated Solar Power POTECH Pohang University of Science and Technology
US DOE United States Department Of Energy PWR Pressurized Water Reactor
EU European Union RC Recompression Compression
Gen IV Generation IV S-CO2 Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
GFR Gas Cooled Reactor SFR Sodium Fast Reactor
HTES High Temperature Steam Electrolysis SMR Small Modular Reactor
HPC High Pressure Compressor SNL Sandia National Laboratory
HPT High Pressure Turbine SWRI SouthWest Research Institute
HTGR High Temperature Gas Reactor TAC Turbine-Alternator-Compressor
HTR High Temperature Recuperator TIP Turbine Inlet Pressure
IAE The Institute of Applied Energy TIT Turbine Inlet Temperature
KAERI Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute UK United Kingdom
KAIST Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology VHTR Very High Temperature Reactor
The S-CO2 Brayton cycle was then considered as promising power paper focuses on research subjects unique to S-CO2 power cycle coupled
conversion system for more power types, such as solar energy, fuel cell, nuclear applications, including S-CO2 cooled reactor design, S-CO2
coal power, geothermal energy and so on (Ahn et al., 2015a,b). power cycle optimization for different nuclear concepts, interaction
Olumayegun and Wang (2019) studied the dynamic performance of S- between primary reactor coolant and S-CO2, dynamic characteristics
CO2 Brayton cycle coupled waste heat recovery system to evaluate its and control strategy for S-CO2 power cycle directly and indirectly
feasibility and benefits. Li et al. (2019a,b,c) carried out design assess- cooled reactor system, safety performance evaluation for S-CO2 power
ment for S-CO2 Brayton cycle for commercial scale coal-fired power cycle based nuclear applications, feasibility and research status of S-
plants and the key issues and solution strategy for S-CO2 coal fired CO2 Brayton cycle working as heat removal system for existing com-
power plant were discussed in paper of Xu et al. (2018). Neises and mercial nuclear power plants. The overall review of application of S-
Turchi (2014) assessed the feasibility of S-CO2 Brayton cycle for con- CO2 power cycle in nuclear engineering is able to reveal readers ex-
centrating solar power applications. Researchers from diversified fields isting research status, challenges and potential future breakthroughs of
invested money and manpower in development of compact heat ex- S-CO2 power cycle based nuclear energy.
changers, high power density and high operating temperature turbo- In this paper, the remaining section is organized as follows. This
machinery, accumulating operation experience of S-CO2 closed loop, paper first discusses the fundamentals and features of S-CO2 power
which prompted technical maturity of S-CO2 Brayton cycle in labora- cycle in section two. In the third part, the existing and under-con-
tory. struction S-CO2 integrated test loops are reviewed minutely and the
The advantages of S-CO2 power cycle make it well matched with discussion for the integrated test results can help the readers to un-
nuclear applications. S-CO2 power cycle offers high efficiency at med- derstand the technical maturity of S-CO2 power cycle in the world.
iate turbine inlet temperature (around 450–600 °C), which is close to Finally, the applications and research work of S-CO2 power cycle in
the design core outlet temperature of Gen IV reactors (Pioro, 2016). The nuclear engineering are reviewed and discussed in section four.
simplicity and compactness of S-CO2 power cycle help the nuclear re-
actor system save capital cost and make the nuclear power plant more
2. Characteristics of S-CO2 Brayton cycle
competitive in economy compared to other energy types (Li et al.,
2019a,b,c). S-CO2 power cycle has relative low efficiency loss in dry
2.1. Thermo-properties of S-CO2
cooling condition compared to that of water cooling condition, which
enable SMR’s application in water-deficient area (Conboy et al., 2014;
S-CO2 Brayton cycle is unique due to the special thermo-properties
Wu et al., 2020). The feature of small footprint make the high power
of S-CO2. CO2 has a moderate critical pressure of 7.38 MPa and a
density nuclear power plant be able to transported by truck or train (Oh
moderate critical temperature of 31.1 °C. CO2 is regarded to be at su-
et al., 2017), which permit in-factory manufacture and on-site assem-
percritical state when its pressure and temperature are both over the
bling of nuclear power system. S-CO2 power cycle based nuclear re-
corresponding critical value. Pseudo critical point is a fluid state at a
actors can also be applied in some scenarios which have a high re-
pressure higher than critical pressure and at a temperature corre-
quirement for space and power density, such as space reactor (Mazzetti
sponding to the maximum value of the specific heat at this particular
et al., 2019).
pressure. S-CO2 has a sharp thermo-properties change near its critical or
Different energy types coupling with S-CO2 power cycle face many
pseudo critical point. Fig. 1 shows the density and specific volume
common issues which need in-depth investigations, such as technology
variation with temperature change at different pressures. As seen from
development of the high pressure ratio compressor, high temperature
Fig. 1-a), the density before critical or pseudo-critical point is close to
and high temperature gas turbine, TAC (turbine-alternator-compressor)
the density of normal liquid (such as water), which is much larger than
design and fabrication at large power level, highly compact heat ex-
that of normal gases (such as helium, nitrogen). Then density experi-
changer, as well as the material test in environment of high temperature
ences a sharply drop when temperature is over the critical or pseudo-
CO2. These research activities are excluded from this paper for that
critical point. It’s worth noting that the density of CO2 at the same
there are already many papers discussing this part (Ahn et al., 2015a,b;
pressure and temperature is much larger than that of other gases (such
Musgrove et al., 2016; Li et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2019). This review
as helium, nitrogen). Taking a state close to the critical point as an
2
that the critical pressure and critical temperature of CO2 is much easy to
achieve compared to other fluids. Fig. 3 shows the critical point of
different fluids. As can be seen from the figure, CO2 has a moderate
pressure, which is easy to reach, while has a moderate critical tem-
perature, which is very close to the atmospheric temperature. It’s easy
to make CO2 temperature close to critical temperature through water or
air cooling.
The above property features of S-CO2 make it a perfect thermal
transport fluid for closed Brayton cycle.
2.2. Supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle and its layout
The ideal S-CO2 Brayton cycle has the same four thermal processes
as steam Rankine cycle and other gas Brayton cycle, including isobaric
heating process, isentropic expansion process, Isobaric exothermic
process, and isentropic compression process, as shown in Fig. 4-a). The
special thing about S-CO2 Brayton cycle is that it applies supercritical
CO2 as its thermal transport fluids and the fluid at the compressor inlet
is cooled to be close to S-CO2 critical point, whose high density help
reduce the work consumed by compressor. Gas Brayton cycle applied
Fig. 1. Density and specific volume variation with temperature change at dif-
ferent pressure.
example, at pressure of 7.5 MPa and temperature of 36 °C, the CO2

density is around 261.4 kg/m3, while the density of N2 and He are
around 81 kg/m3 and 11.3 kg/m3. When different gases are compressed
at pressure of 7.5 MPa and temperature of 36 °C, the compression work
of CO2 compressor will be much lower than those of the N2 and He
compressor, which will help increase thermal efficiency of the whole
cycle. At high temperature, the CO2 density is still higher than that of
the steam, which indicates that CO2 turbine will have a much smaller
size than the steam turbine. From Fig. 1-b), we can found that CO2 has
a very large peak specific heat around its critical or pseudo-critical
point, which indicate that CO2 has great heat transfer capacity in this
area.
Fig. 2 shows the sound speed and viscosity variation change with
temperature variation. The sound speed variation effects the turbo-
machinery design while the viscosity decides the flow resistance inside
the flow loop. While sound speed of ideal gas is proportional to tem-
perature, S-CO2 has an irregular sound speed variation with tempera-
ture and pressure. S-CO2 has much lower viscosity compared to water
and has comparative viscosity compared to helium, which indicates
that the flow resistance inside a CO2 loop is lower than that of a water
loop.
The compressor inlet coolant in the S-CO2 power cycle operating
close to the critical point can help reduce the consumed compressor Fig. 2. Sound speed and viscosity variation with temperature change at dif-
work and improve the overall cycle efficiency. Another great thing is ferent pressure.
3
increases, making the heating process more efficient and the fluid
reaching turbine has a high temperature, which improve power con-
version efficiency. The expansion process in turbine is always in single
phase and has no risk of condensation. The turbine system can elim-
inate the moisture separator reheater used in steam Rankine cycle,
which simplify the system configuration. The large S-CO2 density and
small pressure ratio result in extreme compactness of turbomachinery,
as can be seen in Fig. 4-c). The fluids in the cooling process have a very
large specific heat, which enhance the heat exchanging efficiency. The
low viscosity of S-CO2 makes the system has a lower pressure drop. The
single phase CO2 through the whole cycle eliminates the phase change
process and speeds up the dynamic response.
Different layouts (seeing Fig. 5) have been developed to further
improve the overall cycle efficiency derived from the simplest S-CO2
power cycle shown in Fig. 4-a). More wasted heat can be recycled by
adding a recuperator to the layout in Fig. 4-a), which forms the simple
Brayton cycle (seeing Fig. 5-a). In the simple Brayton cycle, the hot and
Fig. 3. Critical temperature and critical pressure of different fluids. cold side of the recuperator has the same flowrate. The CO2 flow at the
cold side of the recuperator has a larger heat capacity than that of the
CO2 at the hot side, which results in the occurrence of pinch point in-
ideal gas as its coolant and has no phase change process as well. Steam side the reucperator and decreases the overall cycle efficiency. By-
Rankine cycle apply water as transport fluids and there is evaporation passing some of CO2 flowing through the main compressor to anther
and condensation in the process of heating and cooling, as shown in compressor and another recuperator can improve the pinch point pro-
Fig. 4-b). blem and improve the overall cycle efficiency. This kind of layout is
S-CO2 Brayton cycle has distinctive features due to the special called recompression Brayton cycle, as shown in Fig. 5-b). These two
thermal properties of S-CO2 and the cycle configuration. The fluid at the Brayton cycle layouts have been widely studied for application in nu-
compressor inlet owns high density which is able to reduce the com- clear engineering for their layout simplicity and high cycle efficiency.
pressor consumed work. S-CO2 has no phase change when temperature Other methodology to improve the cycle efficiency include adding a
Fig. 4. Principles and features of S-CO2 Brayton cycle.
4
Fig. 5. Typical S-CO2 Brayton cycle layout.
precooler process to further reduce the compressor work (intercooling, electricity at a low turbine inlet temperature. The test on the gas tur-
seeing Fig. 5-d), adding a reheat process to further increase the turbine bine and the heater were extensively carried out on this loop (Wright
output (reheating, seeing Fig. 5-e). Other layouts including partial et al., 2010). With adding a TAC and two recuperators to the heated un-
cooling (seeing Fig. 5-c), double compression (Fig. 5-f), modified re- recuperated Brayton loop, the recompression Brayton cycle loop were
compression (seeing Fig. 5-g), dual expansion (seeing Fig. 5-h) have the finished. This test loop produced electricity (10 kW produced by TAC-2
potential to improve the cycle efficiency for different source tempera- and 2 kW produced by TAC-1) at April of 2012, which was the first S-
ture. Using organic Rankine cycle as bottom cycle for S-CO2 may help to CO2 test loop being able to produce electricity. However, the operation
recover more waste heat and improve the cycle efficiency, as shown in condition didn’t reach the design value. The maximum turbine inlet
Fig. 5-i. The characteristics and features of these different cycle layouts temperature reached 672 K (399 °C) and the maximum rotating speed
are summarized in Table 1. reached 65,000 rpm (Pasch et al., 2012).
3. Experimental study for integrated S-CO2 Brayton cycle 3.1.2. BMPC IST test loop
BMPC (Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation) started construction
Experimental study is essential to progress the feasibility study of of its 100kWe integrated s-CO2 cycle loop since 2011 autumn and the
closed S-CO2 Brayton cycle. Small scale integrated S-CO2 Brayton cycle operation of the loop started since 2012 spring (Clementoni and Cox,
test loops can help to achieve the targets like: 1) test the performance of 2014a,b). The loop was made up of a turbine driven compressor with
the key components such as turbine, compressor, recuperator, pre- variable speed, a turbine driven generator with constant speed, a re-
cooler; 2) accumulate operating experience of closed S-CO2 Brayton cuperator, a precooler and the heating system which use hot oil to heat
cycles which has no previous reference; 3) study the control strategy for up, as shown in Fig. 6-b. The start-up, shut-down as well as other
cycle start-up, shut-down, as well as power maneuver; 4) accumulate transient operation process were achieved on this test facility. The
experiment data for the transient analysis code validation which can be highest turbine rotating speed reached 55000 rpm, lower than its ori-
used for further design of S-CO2 Brayton cycle at a larger power scale. ginal design of 75000 rpm. The maximum output electricity reached
The earliest Integrated S-CO2 cycle experiment started in USA since 40kWe (the cycle efficiency was around 4%) (Clementoni and Cox,
2008(Wright et al., 2010). Then other countries like Japan and Korea 2014a,b). When the compressor speed was leveled up to 52000 rpm, the
started to establish integrate S-CO2 loop for experimental study. China generator worked unstably which limited further increase of the loop
has recently involved more and more in S-CO2 power cycle project and flowrate as well as the produced electricity (Clementoni et al., 2014).
several S-CO2 cycle loops of MWe scale are under construction. The
overall details and operation status of these integrated S-CO2 test loop 3.1.3. Echogen EPS 100
are summarized in Table 2. The schematic maps of the test loops listed Echogen developed the EPS 100, which was a 7 to 8 MW class heat
in Table 2 are assembled in Fig. 6. In this part the existing and under- recovery power system. The EPS 100 was a simple recuperated Brayton
construction integrated facilities are reviewed to depict the technical cycle, as shown in Fig. 6-c. In the experiment, the heat came from su-
progress of S-CO2 Brayton cycle in laboratory. perheated steam, which limited the turbine inlet temperature to 260 °C.
S-CO2 flowing through the heat source section was split into two loops.
3.1. Existing integrated facilities One loop directed the S-CO2 to the power turbine to produce electricity
and the other one loop directed the S-CO2 to the drive turbine which
3.1.1. SNL test loop produced energy to drive the pump. The pump had run for around
SNL (Sandia National Laboratory) started the S-CO2 test loop ex- 340 h and the power turbine had operated for over 150 h. Electricity of
periment since 2008. The facility establishment include three steps 2.35MWe was produced when the power turbine operated at its full
which were simple compressor loop (seeing Fig. 6-a1), heated un-re- speed (Held, 2014), which is the largest electricity produced by S-CO2
cuperated Brayton loop (seeing Fig. 6-a2) and the final recompression test loop.
loop (seeing Fig. 6-a3). For operation of the simple compressor loop, the
compressor speed reached 65000 rpm, while the compressor mass 3.1.4. DOE test loop
flowrate reached 2.4 kg/s, compressor inlet temperature reached US DOE started its Sunshot project since 2011, which aimed to build
306.8 K and the inlet pressure reached 7.956 MPa. The predicted a 10 MWe S-CO2 Brayton cycle loop operating at high turbine inlet
compressor operation curve matched well with the experimental data. temperature of 700 °C, to support the development of S-CO2 power
Through adding heat source and gas turbine, the simple compressor cycle based concentrated solar power. In order to test the turbine and
loop became into the heated un-recuperated Brayton loop. Experi- heat exchangers, SWRI (Southwest Research Institute) started to build
mental data showed that break-even state was achieved when turbine integrated loop for the full test pressure (8 MPa-28 MPa) and full
inlet temperature reached 60 °C, which meant this loop can produce temperature range (45–700 °C), as shown in Fig. 6-d (Moore et al.,
5
Fig. 5. (continued)
2014). A 1 MWe-scale sCO2 turbine was designed to advance current installed into the loop and operated at speed of 24000 rpm, inlet
sCO2 turbine technology from a technology readiness level (TRL3: in- temperature of 550 °C and pressure of 20 MPa (Moore et al., 2018). In
itial small-scale laboratory-size testing) to a full TRL6 level (MW-scale November of 2019, the turbine operating speed reached its design
prototype demonstration). In 2018, the 1 MWe-scale CO2 turbine was speed of 27000 rpm, the operating temperature was 715 °C which was
6
Table 1
Characteristics of different typical S-CO2 Brayton cycle layout.
Cycle layout Layout Characteristics Advantage Disadvantage
Simple Brayton cycle Cycle is made up of one turbine, one Simple configuration, simple control Pinch point problem in recuperator, low cycle
compressor and one recuperator strategy efficiency (Dostal, 2004)
Recompression Brayton Based on simple Brayton cycle, a bypass loop is No pinch point problem, high cycle Low flexibility on turbine exhaust pressure
cycle added to improve the recuperator performance. efficiency compared to simple Brayton cycle
A recompression compressor and a recuperator (Dostal, 2004)
is additionally needed
Partial cooling Brayton A pre-compressor and a pre-cooler are Turbine outlet pressure is independent of Layout and control strategy become complex
cycle introduced before the splitting point of compressor inlet pressure. Higher turbine
recompression cycle expansion ratio and higher turbine specific
work (Pham et al., 2015).
Intercooling Brayton cycle Another cooling and compression process is Compressor consumed work is reduced and Higher demand for heat rejection system
added after the main compressor the overall cycle efficiency will be promoted
(Pham et al., 2015)
Reheating Brayton cycle Another heating and expansion process is Turbine produced work is improved and the Complex cycle layout
added after the turbine overall cycle efficiency will be promoted
(Pham et al., 2015)
Double Recompression Based on recompression cycle, a second CO2 The recuperator efficiency is further Complex cycle layout. No obvious efficiency
Brayton cycle flow split loop is added to further improve improved and the overall cycle efficiency benefit is found for mediate turbine inlet
recuperator efficiency. Another compressor and may be promoted (Moisseytsev and Sienicki, temperature. The increased recuperator
another recuperator are added. 2009) effectiveness may be offset by increased
compression work.
Modified Recompression Similar to recompression Brayton cycle but the Allow low operating pressure of nuclear Low turbine expansion work and low cycle
Brayton Cycle heat source is set at the turbine exit applications (Guo et al., 2018). efficiency compared to recompression Brayton
cycle
Dual Expansion Brayton There are two turbines in this cycle. The heat Allow low operating pressure of nuclear Complex cycle layout
cycle source is installed between the exit of high- applications (Guo et al., 2018).
pressure turbine and inlet of low pressure
turbine
SCO2-ORC combined cycle An organic Rankine cycle is added to recover Cycle efficiency may be promoted (Pérez- Complex cycle layout
the wasted heat Pichel et al., 2012)
even a little bit higher than its design temperature (700 °C), and the 120kWe (Cho et al., 2016a,b). For the 1 kWe transcritical CO2 loop,
operating pressure was close to 25 MPa. The operating temperature of electricity of 86We was obtained under TIT (turbine inlet temperature)
this 1 MWe S-CO2 turbine is the highest according to open literatures of 320 °C for 30mins. For the 10 kWe S-CO2 test loop, electricity of 10
(Moore, 2019). This is a good indication that integrated S-CO2 test loop kWe was obtained under TIT of 212 °C and TIP (turbine inlet pressure)
is expected to produce electricity of MWe level at high pressure and of 12.3 MPa. The turbine used for the 120kWe test loop reached
high temperature in the laboratory in a short time. 43,000 rpm at cold state, which was close to its design target of
45,000 rpm (Cho et al., 2016a,b). Now the whole 120kWe test loop is
3.1.5. SCIEL test loop still under commissioning (Cho et al., 2019). More test results will be
In Korea, KAERI, KAIST and POTECH jointly built an integrated S- found in the open literature in 2020.
CO2 experiment loop named SCIEL (Ahn et al., 2015a,b). Due to the
high pressure rise (2.5) designed for the loop, the expansion and 3.1.7. IAE test loop
compression process were separated into 2 grades, as shown in Fig. 6-e. Japanese institute IAE carried out 10 kWe S-CO2 test loop experi-
The low pressure compressor and turbine formed a simple Brayton cycle ment. The test loop was made up of one TAC, two recuperators, one
loop while the high pressure turbine and high pressure compressor electric heater and one precooler, as shown in Fig. 6-g. The rotating
adopt TAC configuration. The construction of SCIEL was separated into shaft reached a speed of 69000 rpm in 2012, which was the highest
three phases. The first phase was the compressor test loop, which tested rotating speed for S-CO2 turbine up to now. The loop flowrate was
the operation of compressor (Cha et al., 2014). The second phase was 1.1 kg/s under CIP and CIT (compressor inlet pressure and tempera-
the low pressure rise S-CO2 closed cycle. The third phase was the high ture) of 7.5 MPa and 304.6 K, as well as the TIP and TIT of 10.6 MPa
pressure rise simple S-CO2 Brayton cycle. Up to 2016, the construction and 533 K. The largest electricity produced by the loop was around
of SCIEL for the first two phases was finished. In the compressor test 110 W, which was far below the expectation for the reason of rotor
experiment, the compressor operated at the speed of 35,000 rpm, which windage (Utamura et al., 2012).
was below the designed compressor speed of 70,000 rpm, and achieved
a pressure rise of 1.12 (Ahn et al., 2015a,b). There was no vibration 3.1.8. SC-CO2 cycle test loop
during compressor operating condition changed from subcritical pres- A S-CO2 integrated test facility was installed to carried out thermal-
sure to supercritical pressure. In the second phase experiment the hydraulic tests for S-CO2 cycle by Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
compressor speed reached 24,500 rpm and the turbine speed reached Atomic Energy Agency, Advanced Reactor Technology Co., Ltd, and
13,000 rpm, which enabled the cycle to produce electricity of 1.2 kW Fuji Electric systems Co., Ltd (Kisohara et al., 2008). The test loop is
(Cha et al., 2016). made up of one electrical heater of 30 kWth working as the heat source,
two main compressors (one low-pressure compressor and high-pressure
3.1.6. KIER test loop compressor) and one bypass compressor, two recuperators, and one
KIER (Korea Institute of Energy Research) started its 10 kWe S-CO2 pressure expander instead of turbine, as shown in Fig. 6-h). The overall
test loop since 2013 and a 1 kWe transcritical CO2 loop since 2014 (as cycle configuration is close to typical recompression cycle configuration
shown in Fig. 6-f). Their final target was to build an integrated S-CO2 except that pressure expander is used instead of gas turbine. The
test loop of maximum operating pressure of 13 MPa and maximum maximum operating pressure and temperature is around 14 MPa and
operating temperature of 500 °C, who could produce electricity around 573 K. The compressor efficiency tests, thermal hydraulic tests for S-fin
7
P. Wu, et al.
Table 2
Existing integrated test loop for S-CO2 Brayton cycle.
Organization SNL BMPC DOE Echogen IAE KAERI/KAIST/POTECH KIER CHNG
Name IST STEP EPS100 SCIEL

heater electrical hot oil natural gas fired heater Superheated steam Electrical heating Hot oil LGN fired flue gas heater Fossil-fired boiler
immersed
Turbomachinery 2-TAC 1-TAC 1-TURBINE 1-TAC (simple test loop) 1 pump, 1 power turbine 1-TAC (2- Two stage compression 1 compressor and 2 turbo- 1-LPT 1-HPT 1-
feature and 1 drive-turbine recuperator) and expansion1-TAC 2- generator Compressor
LPC 1-LPT
Maximum heat 780 1000 11,700 – 160 1300 700 18,300
source power,
kW
Electricity power, 126(target)/ 100(target)/40(achieved) 10000(target) 7000–8000(target)/ 10(target)/ 300(target)/ 120(target) 5000(target)
kWe 20(achieved) 2350(achieved) 0.11(achieved) 1.2(achieved)
Mass flowrate, kg/s 2.5(target)/ 5.35(target)/3.54(achieved) 15(target)/8.41(achieved) 1.1(achieved) 4.8(target) 3.7(target) 83.3(target)
2.7(achieved)
Turbine inlet 537(target)/ 300(target)/282(achieved) 500(1st target)/ 400–485(target)/ 277(target)/ 500(target) 500(target) 600(target)
temperature/C 399(achieved) 500(achieved)715(2nd 260–275(achieved) 277(achieved)
8
target)/715(achieved)
Turbine inlet 13.8(target)/ 16.5(target)/14.1(achieved) 20((1st target)/ – 12(target)/ 20(target) 13.5(target) 20(target)
pressure/ MPa 13.6(achieved) 20(achieved)25(2nd 10.6(achieved)
target)/24.13(achieved)
Pressure ratio 1.8(target)/ 1.8(target)/1.44(achieved) 2.5(1st target)/ – 1.45(target)/ 1.8(LPC), 1.5(HPC) 1.75(target) HPT-1.527(target)/LPT-
1.65(achieved) 2.5(achieved)3.125(2nd 1.5(achieved) 1.527(target)
target)/3.01(achieved)
Rotating Speed, 75(target)/ 75(target)/55–60(achieved) 27(target)/27(achieved) 30(designed)/30(achieved) 100(target)/ LPT-83(target)/ 70(target) 9(LPT)(target)/9(HPT)
*1000 rpm 65(achieved) 69(achieved) 13(achieved)LPC- (target)/8.5MC (traget)
70(target)/
35(achieved)TAC-
100(target)
Turbine efficiency/% 86(turbine-1)/ 79.8(PT)/79.7(C-driving TB) – – 65 85 80(turbine A)/50(turbine 76(LPT)/75(HPT)
87(turbine-2) B)
Compressor 67(MC)/70(RC) 60.8 – – 48 65 65 69(MC)
efficiency/%
Comment Construction Construction started in fall Achieved the highest Achieved the largest Operation result Construction started 2013–2014:10kWe test The whole test loop is
started since 2008 2011. Brayton cycle turbine inlet temperature electricity production of was first published since 2014.The second loop2014: 1kWe test still under
operation started in Spring and the highest pressure 2.35MWe by S-CO2 test in 2012 phase of SCIEL was loop2015–2020: 120 kWe commissioning. The
2012. Over 165 h of Brayton ratio for S-CO2 test loop in loop finished test loop compressor is in
system operation 2019 operation now
Nuclear Engineering and Design 368 (2020) 110767
Fig. 6. The schematic map of the existing test loop worldwide.
9
et al., 2020), thermal and economical optimization of S-CO2 Brayton

cycle (Guo et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2020), loop control strategy (Deng
et al., 2019) and integrated loop experiment (Li et al., 2019a,b,c).
Chinese Academy of Sciences invested 14 million RMB to build a
MWe level S-CO2 compressor test loop. The experiment started since
October of 2018 and the compressor reached its nominal operation
state on December of 2019(Jiang et al., 2019). The compressor worked
under speed of 29,000 rpm steadily for over 200 s. The pressure rise and
efficiency matched well with the numerical prediction. Now the MWe
level turbine of inlet pressure of 20 MPa, outlet pressure of 8.5 MPa,
and isentropic efficiency not lower than 85% is under design.
CHNG (China HuaNeng Group) is carrying out experiment facility
construction for a 5MWe reheat and recompression S-CO2 test loop,
which is shown in Fig. 6-i. The target turbine inlet temperature and
pressure are 600 °C and 20 MPa with a rotating speed of 9000 rpm. The
compressor is supposed to work around temperature of 32 °C and
pressure of 7.6 MPa with a rotating speed of 8500 rpm. The total heat
input for the loop is 14.557 MW while the target produced electricity is
5MWe. Now the loop is still under commissioning and it may start to
work in 2020 (Li et al., 2019a,b,c).
3.3. Discussion
Turbomachinery is the key component in a S-CO2 test loop. The

large fluid density and small pressure ratio make the S-CO2 turbo-
machinery very tiny compared to pump or steam turbine used for
water. However, S-CO2 turbomachinery requires very high rotating
speed when its power level is low which bring challenges in turbo-
machinery design and operation. The operation status of the existing
integrated S-CO2 test loops is summarized in Fig. 7, whose target
electricity power level ranged from 0.11 kWe to 10 MWe. Fig. 7 shows
that S-CO2 turbomachinery whose power is lower than 1 MW, is usually
designed to rotate at a speed over 70,000 rpm. The high rotating speed
coupling with the high temperature environment brings huge technical
difficulties in rotor dynamics and structural integrity of turbomachinery
design. None of the aforementioned small power level integrated test
loop reaches its target rotating speed, which further results in low
power conversion efficiency. The operation records of the MWe power
level turbomachinery are better. Experiments conducted by SWRI give
us strong confidence that MWe turbine can work at its full speed and at
a very high temperature of 715 °C. The thermal efficiency of S-CO2
Brayton cycle will be promoted with the power scale increase.
According to the above review, the highest S-CO2 turbine inlet
temperature of 715 °C had been achieved by SWRI at the end of 2019.
The largest electricity production of 2.35 MWe was achieved by
Echogen in 2014. The highest rotating speed of 69,000 rpm had been
achieved by IAE in 2012. All these test results demonstrated the feasi-
bility of S-CO2 Brayton cycle in the laboratory and valuable operation
experiences of closed S-CO2 test loop were accumulated. Integrated S-
CO2 Brayton cycle experiment is a prerequistite for further investigation
of larger power level S-CO2 test loop development and commerciali-
zation of S-CO2 Brayton cycle technology in various energy forms.
Fig. 6. (continued)
4. Application of S-CO2 Brayton cycle in nuclear engineering
and zigzag-fin type PCHE recuperators, as well as the closed cycle op-
eration stability tests varying from subcritical to supercritical state, S-CO2 Brayton cycle can be used as power conversion system and
were carried out to clarify the characteristics of S-CO2 test loop. decay heat removal system for nuclear reactor. S-CO2 Brayton cycle has
a higher cycle efficiency over helium Brayton cycle and superheated
3.2. The progress of integrated experiment in China steam cycle when its turbine inlet temperature is over 450 °C, as shown
in Fig. 8. The cycle efficiency variation refers to the results in (Hejzlar
S-CO2 Brayton cycle based CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) tech- et al., 2007). Different nuclear reactor concepts including Gen IV re-
nology was chosen as one of “Ten major engineering and technical actor concepts and fusion reactor, have a core outlet temperature over
problems in the field of energy and power” by China Association for 450 °C, which makes S-CO2 Brayton cycle a perfect substitute for he-
Science and Technology in 2018. More and more Chinese researchers lium Brayton cycle and superheated steam cycle. For water cooled SMR
are devoted to the technology development of S-CO2 Brayton cycle, who has a low core outlet temperature around 300 °C, it can take ad-
including research efforts on compact heat exchanger design (Zhou vantage of the compact configuration and small footprint of S-CO2
10
Fig. 7. Test results of the existing integrated test loops.
Brayton cycle to extend SMR’s application area and reduce the overall reactor system has no need to carry out complex reactor design as it has
cost. Some researchers from EU try to use S-CO2 Brayton cycle to work already been carried out for several decades by GEN IV reactor re-
as heat removal system for nuclear reactors or absent nuclear fuel pools. searchers. More emphasis can be put on the development of S-CO2
A comprehensive review work is carried out for S-CO2 Brayton cycle Brayton cycle including the design for intermediate heat exchanger, S-
based nuclear applications in the following content. CO2 cycle configuration optimization, the consequence of penetration
of S-CO2 into the primary coolant system, the control strategy as well as
4.1. Working as a power conversion system the safety evaluation. The safety evaluation work is unique for S-CO2
cycle based nuclear facilities because safety is the first priority in nu-
S-CO2 Brayton cycle can work as direct or indirect power conversion clear application. The control strategy of S-CO2 based nuclear reactors
system for nuclear engineering. When working as direct power con- is different from other S-CO2 applications because the parameter fluc-
version system for nuclear reactor, elimination of the intermediate heat tuations in the S-CO2 Brayton cycle will affect the coolant flow condi-
exchanger further improves its economy and configuration simplicity. tion in the reactor coolant system, which will further influence the
In this case, a totally new reactor concept using S-CO2 as coolant should reactor core power due to the reactivity feedback. All the research
be developed through neutron and thermal hydraulic analysis. Its safety progresses and challenges in applying S-CO2 Brayton cycle as power
and control characteristics should be carefully evaluated to make sure conversion system for nuclear reactors will be reviewed and discussed
this kind of reactor concept is feasible. When working as indirect power in this section.
conversion system, the S-CO2 Brayton cycle couples with reactor
coolant system through intermediate heat exchanger. This kind of
Fig. 8. Cycle efficiency of power conversion system and operation condition of various reactor type.
11
4.1.1. S-CO2 cooled reactor concept Table 3

CO2 was firstly used as reactor coolant for MAGNOX reactor, whose Existing S-CO2 cooled reactor concepts.
commercial deployment started since 1950 s by the UK and France Reactor System MIT-GFR SCFR-300 SC-GFR MMR
(Shropshire, 2004). The MAGNOX core operated at 2 MPa pressure and
had an outlet temperature of 400 °C. Then it was upgraded to advanced Research Institute MIT XJTU SNL KAIST
Thermal Power (MW) 2400 300 200–400 36.2
gas-cooled reactor (AGR) in 1970 s, which used 2.3% enriched uranium
Fuel Type UO2/BeO UO2 UO2/MOX UN
oxide fuel pellets and stainless steel cladding to achieve a higher core Cladding Type ODS ODS Austenitic SS SS
outlet temperature of 650 °C to increase the cycle efficiency. At the end MA956 MA956
of 1988, about 52 carbon dioxide cooled reactors were in operation Core Outlet Temperature (oC) 650 500 650 550
worldwide. These operating carbon dioxide cooled reactors would Core Pressure (MPa) 20 14 20 20
Mass Flowrate (kg/s) 11,708 1254 920 180
provide valuable experience on the design and operation of S-CO2
Power Density (MW/m3) 151 36.5 55.1
cooled reactor. Axial Peaking Factor 1.3 1.25 – 1.35
There are limited S-CO2 cooled reactor concepts developed up to Radial Peaking Factor 1.15 1.44 – 1.17
now. MIT proposed a 4-loop 2400MWth S-CO2 cooled reactor which Doppler Reactivity −0.45 −4.58 – −0.457
Coefficient (pcm/K)
owned innovative tube-in-duct fuel (Fig. 9-a) to increase the fuel vo-
Coolant Void Reactivity −486 −556 −198.4 −234.8
lume fraction and lower the fuel temperature because of its larger heat (pcm)
exchanger area compared to fuel rod (Pope, 2004). SCFR-300 adopted
MIT’s tube-in-duct fuel concept but designed a different fuel assembly
(seen in Fig. 9-b). The reactor has a thermal power of 300 MW with small. The detailed information of these reactors are summarized in
20 years’ operation without refuelling (Liu et al., 2016). SC-GFR is a S- Table 3. From the table we can find that both the Doppler reactivity and
CO2 cooled reactor concept with power ranging from 200MWth to coolant void reactivity feedback can be negative, which is benefit for
400MWth (seen in Fig. 9-c), which is largely based on AGR commercial reactor power self-protection in accidents and transient process. The
power plants and other GFR concepts (Parma et al., 2011). KAIST power density of these concepts are quite high. The lowest one is
proposed a small and truck-transportable S-CO2 cooled SMR concepts 36.5 MW/m3 and the largest one is 151 MW/m3, which indicate that
with dry air cooling, which aimed to provide electricity to the remote the reactor core is quite small and the reactor system size will not offset
area. As can be seen in Fig. 9-d, the overall footprint of MMR is quite the benefit of small footprint brought by using S-CO2 Brayton cycle. As
Fig. 9. Existing S-CO2 cooled reactor concepts.
12
the power density of the reactor core is high and the convective heat thermodynamic performance of various S-CO2 cycle layout including
transfer ability of CO2 under accident conditions is worse than water or recompression (Fig. 5-b), intercooling (Fig. 5-d), reheating (Fig. 5-e),
liquid metal, which other Gen IV use as coolant, the dynamic perfor- partial cooling (Fig. 5-c) for TIT ranging from 250–850 °C. The best
mance of S-CO2 reactor system under transient and accident conditions thermal efficiency of 29.3% was achieved for SMR with core outlet
is key to assess its feasibility. temperature of 275 °C when applying reheating recompression cycle
Besides the above reactor concepts which use rod type fuels, re- while an efficiency of 43.9% was achieved with intercooled
placing Helium coolant with S-CO2 in HTGR and VHTR is also a great recompression cycle for SFR with core outlet temperature of 515 °C.
idea to improve the safety and plant efficiency at the same time. The It was also noted that condensing S-CO2 cycle was the most efficiency
TRISO fuel particles used for HTGR and VHTR can hold the fission cycle, which had the highest efficiency of 45.7% at a compressor inlet
product inside the particle even at high temperature of 1800 °C (Fukaya temperature of 27 °C. High pressure in S-CO2 cycle was benefit for cycle
et al., 2020). efficiency improvement. However, large pressure difference between
the reactor coolant side and S-CO2 side posed a challenge to the
4.1.2. S-CO2 cycle optimization intermediate heat exchanger (IHX) design and the safety under IHX
The Simple and recompression S-CO2 Brayton cycle is the most breakage accident. Guo et al. (2018) found that the recompression cycle
widely studied cycle layout for nuclear reactors. There are many re- with dual expansion (Fig. 5-h) achieved better cycle efficiency at lower
search works in exploring suitable configuration of S-CO2 Brayton cycle turbine inlet pressure compared to recompression cycle (Fig. 5-b) and
for nuclear reactors. The main research directions in S-CO2 cycle opti- modified recompression cycle (Fig. 5-g), for the SFR with core outlet
mization include: 1 apply different cycle layouts, such as reheat cycle or temperature of 550 °C and TIT of 515 °C.
intercooling cycle shown in Fig. 5, to make S-CO2 cycle better fitted to Pressurized Water Reator (PWR) is the most widely built reactor
the operating condition of reactor core. 2. Add some other gases into S- type in the world. It usually has such a low operating temperature of
CO2 to change its critical temperature or critical pressure, which helps 320 °C that replacing steam Rankine cycle with S-CO2 cycle will not
change the lowest temperature in S-CO2 cycle and improve the overall bring too much benefits in cycle efficiency. However, the S-CO2 cycle
cycle efficiency. 3. Dry cooling study for S-CO2 cycle based reactor has small footprint and low capital cost. S-CO2 cycle based water cooled
concept, which makes nuclear energy applicable in desert area. Im- SMR has the potential to be transported by ships or railway system.
prove the reactor operating temperature to increase the turbine inlet Yoon et al. (2012) carried out recompression CO2 cycle optimization for
temperature of S-CO2 cycle is not recommended in nuclear applications SMART, which was a 330MWth integral reactor developed by KAERI.
because it will bring challenges in materials selection and nuclear At the maximum cycle temperature of 310 °C and maximum pressure of
safety. 22 MPa, the S-CO2 cycle based SMART reactor system achieved cycle
efficiency of 32%–37%, which was still higher than the conventional
steam Rankine cycle whose cycle efficiency equals to 30%. The turbo-
4.1.2.1. Configuration optimization. Moisseytsev and Sienicki (2009)
machinery size is only 1.4 m3 for a 100MWe level, indicating the small
carried out S-CO2 cycle layout configuration optimization for a pool
size of S-CO2 cycle.
sodium fast reactor whose core outlet temperature was 510 °C. The
The energy produced by fusion reactor is transferred to blanket and
cycle efficiencies of double recompression cycle (Fig. 5-f), cycle with
intercooling (Fig. 5-d) and cycle with reheating (Fig. 5-e) were divertor. In a prototype fusion reactor, the thermal energy generated in
the blanket and divertor are separately 2420 MW and 490 MW and the
compared with that of typical recompression cycle (Fig. 5-b) under a
fixed TIT of 470 °C. Analysis results indicated that these three cycles heat source temperature will reach 500 °C and 250 °C (Ishiyama et al.,
2008). Many researchers start to investigate the feasibility of using S-
with more complex layouts doesn’t show any advantage in the cycle
efficiency over the typical recompression cycle. Pérez-Pichel et al. CO2 cycle to convert thermal power to electricity for fusion reactor not
only for its high cycle efficiency, but also for the elimination of tritium
(2012) carried out optimization study for S-CO2 power cycle applied in
European SFR (ESFR) with a TIT of 500 °C. Cycle layouts including permeation problem. Tritium is liable to permeate the wall into the
coolant. Tritium recovery in CO2 is much easier than that in water.
recompression cycle, recompression cycle with 2HTR and
recompression cycle with a bottoming ORC cycle (Fig. 5-i) were Ishiyama et al.’s calculation indicated that recompression Brayton cycle
achieved 42% cycle efficiency (Ishiyama et al., 2008), higher than that
analyzed. The basic recompression cycle was well fitted to achieve
high thermal efficiencies of 43.31%, while only ORC cycle cooled of helium Brayton cycle and steam Rankine cycle. Other researchers
(Linares et al., 2011; Serrano et al., 2013; Linares et al., 2015, 2016;
recompression cycle among the mentioned cycle layouts had a small
cycle efficiency gain (0.18%). Results indicated that for mediate TIT, Vesely et al., 2017) carried out power conversion system design for the
European dual coolant lithium lead blanket. Combining recompression
recompression Brayton cycle was the most suitable and simplest
Brayton cycle configuration. Pham et al. (2015) mapped the S-CO2 cycle with subcritical steam Rankine cycle achieved higher cycle
Fig. 10. Critical points for S-CO2 based binary mixtures (Jeong and Jeong, 2013).
13
efficiency over other power conversion system. electricity price rise will be expected for air-cooled S-CO2 power
cycle, compared to water cooled power cycle. However, one of
4.1.2.2. CO2-based binary mixture as thermal transport media in Brayton advantage of S-CO2 power cycle is that its cycle efficiency loss is
cycle. Another way to improve the overall cycle efficiency is to adjust quite small compared to steam Rankine cycle when increasing the inlet
the critical point of the coolant used for Brayton cycle. (Jeong et al., compressor/pump temperature. Calculation results indicated that every
2011; Jeong and Jeong, 2013) blended different gases as the additives, 5 °C away from the critical temperature at compressor inlet brought
such as N2, O2, He, Ar, Kr, Xe, H2S and Cyclohexane, into S-CO2 to study around 1.3% cycle efficiency decrease in case of TIT equaling to 460 °C
the property change. The critical temperature and the critical pressure (Wu et al., 2020). S-CO2 power cycle whose CIT equals to 50 °C still
of the CO2-based binary mixture were shown in Fig. 10. All the critical achieved cycle efficiency of 43% at TIT of 550 °C for sodium fast reactor
points of mixtures were calculated using NIST REFPROP, except CO2- (Conboy et al., 2014) and cycle efficiency of 35.5% at TIT of 460 °C for
Xenon which came from experimental data. The decrease in critical lead fast reactor (Wu et al., 2020). Fig. 11 showed the comparison of
temperature lowered down the cycle minimum temperature, which was heat rejection system and the cycle efficiency for three nuclear power
beneficial to the cycle efficiency improvement. The increase in the systems, including SFR coupling with dry cooled S-CO2 power cycle,
critical temperature leveled up the minimum cycle temperature, which LWR with dry cooling steam Rankine cycle and LWR with wet cooling
was benefit for accomplishing heat rejection system with dry air cooling steam Rankine cycle. It can be easily concluded that SFR coupling with
method. The calculation in papers (Jeong et al., 2011; Jeong and Jeong, S-CO2 power cycle had a higher cycle efficiency over the other two
2013) for the 600MWth SFR with a TIT of 550 °C showed that applying options in the Fig. 11. At the same time, with leveling up the
CO2-Xe and CO2-Kr mixture improved cycle efficiency over the pure S- compressor inlet temperature to 50 °C, the number of dry cooling
CO2 recompression cycle, which was consistent with the result for TIT towers was less than that of LWR steam turbine plant with dry cooling
of 450 °C(Hu et al., 2015). The key part in this study should be the right towers and wet cooling towers.
prediction of the thermo-properties of binary mixtures. The mixture Appling dry air cooling for S-CO2 power cycle based nuclear system
properties used in these works still needs numerical or experimental will broaden the application of nuclear energy, especially for the liquid
validation (Jeong et al., 2011; Jeong and Jeong, 2013). Jäger et al. metal SMR whose has a higher core outlet temperature. The tradeoff
combined the multi-fluid mixture models with gE-models to predict the among factors including the compressor inlet temperature, the con-
properties of CO2 mixing with CH4 and C2H6 (Jäger et al., 2019). The sumption of dry air cooling system, the overall cycle efficiency and the
results matched well with the experimental data and this method electricity cost, should be carefully evaluated in the future researches.
needed further validation. In this area, more numerical methods and
experiments need to be invented to guarantee accuracy of the 4.1.3. Interaction between S-CO2 and the reactor coolant
properties of CO2 mixtures. From Fig. 8 we can see that most reactor system has a lower oper-
ating pressure than that of the S-CO2 Brayton cycle (maximum pressure
4.1.2.3. Possibility of dry cooling. In the water-deficient area, using air- usually higher than 15 MPa). Once the intermediate heat exchanger
cooled S-CO2 Brayton cycle to convert the nuclear energy to electricity breaks, the penetration of CO2 into the reactor coolant will cause che-
is a promising option. Moisseytsev and Siencki investigated the mical reaction between CO2 and the reactor coolant. The reactions may
feasibility of dry-air cooling for a S-CO2 power cycle cooled release heat or form some solid products which may block the flow
1000MWth sodium fast reactor (Moisseytsev and Sienicki, 2014). channels and cause the core overheating. If there is no chemical reac-
Results showed that using air to cool down the compressor inlet tion between CO2 and the reactor coolant, the CO2 stay in the coolant
temperature to the critical point consumed ten times air compressor system will also effect the neutron moderation inside the reactor core,
power than that of the water pump in case of water-cooled S-CO2 power which further effect the core power variation. Some of the reactors,
cycle. Additionally, the volume of air-CO2 heat exchanger using PCHE such as sodium fast reactor, has a positive void reactivity feedback
and traditional shell-tube heat exchanger for the precooler, were 100 (Takeda et al., 2018), in which case CO2 staying in sodium pool in-
times and 900 times larger than those of water-CO2 heat exchanger. creases the coolant void, resulting in positive reactivity and core power
Leveling up the operating temperature at the compressor inlet increase.
decreased the heat removed by the air cooling system. A 40% For sodium fast reactor, replacing conventional steam cycle with S-
Fig. 11. The heat rejection system comparison for the same heat duty reactor system (Conboy et al., 2014).
14
CO2 power cycle helps eliminate the risk of violent water-sodium re- cycle. CO2 flowing into the HTGR core reacts with the graphite and
action. However S-CO2 also react with sodium, but with a milder che- produces reaction heat and graphite corrosion. Epiney et al. (2010)
mical reaction (Fouillet, 2007). Yoo et al. carried out experimental tried to inject heavy gas like CO2 and N2 into the helium cooled fast
study and discovered that the Na-CO2 reaction was sensitive to the reactor system to improve the coolant heat transfer capacity. At the
reaction temperature (Yoo et al., 2017; Jung et al., 2017), which was same time, neutron calculation indicated that the effects of CO2 in-
different from the water-Na reaction. Experimental data showed that jecting into helium cooled reactor on the power variation can be ig-
the Na-CO2 reaction rate was quite slow when temperature was lower nored. These facts indicate interaction between S-CO2 power cycle and
than 460 °C. The reaction rate accelerated when the reaction tem- GFR system is not a big deal.
perature was between 460 °C and 598.3 °C or 599.9 °C. Flammable
reaction was observed in the experiment and a large amount of reaction
products were produced when the reaction temperature was over 598.3 4.1.4. Dynamic characteristics and control strategy
or 599.9 °C. However, the CO2-Na reaction was still much milder than Nuclear power always works as a base load to the grid and has less
the water-Na reaction. Jung et al. (2017) found that applying Li2CO3- demand to change its operation conditions. However, with more and
Na2CO3 or Li2CO3-Na2CO3-K2CO3 eutectic system removed the CO2-Na more reactor at small power scale connected to the grid, the load-fol-
reaction product effectively, as shown in Fig. 12. lowing capability will become one of the essential features. The reactor
Vivaldi (2013) and Vivaldi et al. (2013) carried out experimental control should be taken into consideration to make sure the reactor
and two-fluid numerical method to investigate the phenomenon of works in good condition during the dynamic process of S-CO2 Brayton
under-expanded CO2 jet into liquid sodium. Its work provided the CO2 cycle cooled reactor system. The common control method for S-CO2
distribution inside the sodium loop, which further helped decide the recompression Brayton cycle direct-cooled reactor system is shown in
heat transfer conditions inside the core and the reactivity feedback and Fig. 13. Inventory control has been proved to be a very effective load
power rise caused by the existence of CO2. control method (Carstens, 2007). But it has shortcomings like slow load
For lead or lead bismuth alloy fast reactor, there is no evidence that change rate and narrow load change range. Precooler bypass coupling
CO2 reacts with lead or lead bismuth alloy up to now. Farmer and with water mass flowrate control is a very effective way to control the
Sienicki (2004) tried to solve the coupled difference equations, in- compressor inlet temperature (Moisseytsev and Sienicki, 2018). Flow
cluding the blowdown equation, bubble center-of-mass trajectory, gas split valve control includes two valves set on the coolant loops of main
generation equation, gas internal equation, to simulate the CO2 dis- compressor and recompression compressor. One of these two valves
tribution inside the lead pool. Numerical study showed that under the should be controlled to achieve the desired flow split ratio. Throttle
CO2 blowdown rate of 2.5 kg/s, the CO2 flowing into the lead pool rose valve after the recompression compressor is needed to balance the
periodically due to the buoyancy lift and reached the gas cover at the outlet pressure of these two compressors. Especially for recompression
top of the lead pool instead of flowing into the reactor core, which Brayton cycle, the control of the parallel compressor system is quite
indicated that no harm was added to the core section. However, the important. Turbine bypass and turbine throttling control are both very
numerical work still needs experimental data to validate. effective and quick load change control method. However, reactor
There is limited research work on the effects of CO2 flowing into system using these two control method has a lower cycle efficiency
PWR system, HTGR system, MSR system and GFR system under inter- compared to the system using inventory control. At the same time, the
mediate heat exchange tube rupture condition. This will be an im- turbine bypass valve can be located at different places, as indicated in
portant topic prior to applying S-CO2 power cycle in these reactor Fig. 13, which results in different dynamic performance of the reactor
systems. For HTGR, replacing steam cycle with S-CO2 power cycle help system. HTR bypass is a good control method to reduce the recuperator
eliminate the risk of water ingress accident, which is one of the severe temperature change and reduce the thermal stress of the recuperator. A
accidents (Wang et al., 2014). However, there is still a risk of gas in- compressor bypass loop is needed to adjust the CO2 flowing through
gress accident (Takeda, 2010) for HTGR coupling with S-CO2 power compressor to avoid the surge and choke. The reactor power will be
controlled by the control rod system or by the inherent power change
Fig. 12. Removal method of Na-CO2 reaction product with a cleaning agent (Jung et al., 2017).
15
Fig. 13. Control strategy of S-CO2 recompression Brayton cycle direct-cooled reactor system.
caused by negative power reactivity. For indirect cooled reactor system, recuperator temperature change was required to be small to reduce the
there are additional requirement for the primary coolant mass flowrate recuperator thermal stress. A high temperature recuperator bypass was
control and the intermediate heat exchanger outlet temperature con- added to reduce the recuperator temperature change. A reactor power
trol. For simple Brayton cycle configuration, the control set for parallel control was added to control the core outlet temperature, to reduce the
compressors can be taken out. With this whole set of control method, average temperature change of reactor pressure vessel.
the load change of reactor power system can be achieved by compressor Oh et al. (2017) carried out control strategy study for the step de-
speed control, inventory control, temperature control, turbine throttle crease of load from 100% to 0% for the directly cooled reactor MMR. In
valve control and turbine bypass control, whose principles and features the process, the reactor core power was automatically controlled by the
were summarized in Table 4. reactivity feedback and no active control method for the reactor power
Moisseytsev and Sienicki (2018) carried out studies about load was needed. Three methods including core bypass control (at bypass
following operation method for a 100MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor location 2 in Fig. 13), inventory control and turbine throttle valve
using S-CO2 cycle with dry air cooling. The compressor inlet tempera- control were investigated and results indicated that core bypass control
ture was controlled by cooler bypass and air flowrate control. Inventory coupled with inventory control provided the highest cycle efficiency
control was used to roughly adjust the loop load to the desired level, during the load change process. Thus turbine throttling control is ex-
and the turbine bypass method was used for precise load control. In the cluded. The load change speed was not a factor in consideration for
load change operation, the sodium temperature change need to be small MMR operation (see Figs. 14 and 15).
to avoid the large thermal stress on the reactor pressure vessel. The Dynamic analyses and control strategy study for other S-CO2
Table 4
Typical load change control method for S-CO2 Brayton cycle.
Load change method Principle Features
Compressor speed control Change the compressor speed to change the mass flowrate inside the loop, which further 1. Only suitable to the cases that compressor and
change the turbine output power turbine are not on the same shaft.
2. Fast load change at high cycle efficiency
Inventory Control Charge or discharge coolant into the loop to change the coolant density and coolant mass 1. high cycle efficiency during the load change
flowrate and the response is slow.
2. The load change range is limited by the
inventory tank volume
3. Has the risk of reducing the loop pressure to
subcritical pressure
Temperature control Include compressor inlet temperature control and turbine inlet temperature control. Changing 1. Low cycle efficiency
compressor inlet temperature will affect the compressor performance, which further effect the 2. Turbine inlet control need the reactor power
overall cycle mass flowrate. Changing turbine inlet temperature will directly change the change.
turbine output power.
Turbine throttle valve CO2 is expanded after the throttle valve and its pressure decrease, the turbine output work 1. Quick and fast load change method, low
control decrease efficiency.
2. Can’t reach load below 20%.
3. May lead to compressor choke.
Turbine bypass Bypass some of the coolant through the turbine and change the turbine output power 1. Fast and quick load change at any load range.
2. Could be applied to different layouts and no
additional equipment is needed.
16
Fig. 14. Safety system design for S-CO2 cooled reactor concepts.
Brayton cycle applications can also provide reference for S-CO2 cycle the loss of generator load accident. However, total passive residual heat
cooled reactor system. Olumayegun and Wang (2019) investigated the removal system was not recommended to the 2400MWth MIT reactor
dynamic performance of a waste heat recovery (WHR) application because there were various of bypass paths which led to the further
under changes in exhaust gas mass flowrate and temperature. A bypass decrease of coolant flow through the core. At the same time, the CO2
valve is set between the intermediate heat exchanger inlet and turbine heat transfer capability may be deteriorated at low pressure and high
outlet to bypass part of the working fluid to change the turbine inlet power density conditions (Lee et al., 2008a,b), which further increased
temperature. Conclusions are achieved that changing the turbine inlet the uncertainty on natural circulation ability of CO2. Thus a hybrid
temperature is a good way to follow the waste heat source condition. passive/active approach was designed, as shown in Fig. 14-a).
The control strategy in this paper could be applied in the control Because of the smaller footprint of 36.2MWth MMR concept, it’s
strategy study for nuclear application. possible to design containment which stayed at higher pressure.
Most of the introduction of the existing control strategy are ac- Containment of MMR was composed of inner and outer containment
complished by PID controller, which makes the optimization of PID which stayed separately at pressure of 5 MPa and 1 MPa (Oh et al.,
coefficient very important. In the start-up process, the turbomachinery 2016). The inner containment was filled with pressurized CO2 at a low
speed starts from zero to the designed rotating speed. The turbo- temperature, which could mix with the high temperature CO2 vented
machinery model of the dynamic analysis code should be revised to from the coolant circuit under the accident condition. The outer con-
reduce the instability in the low speed condition (Oh et al., 2018). tainment was set to prevent CO2 leakage from the inner containment.
The safety system for MMR is shown in Fig. 14-b), which is made up of
turbine bypass system, venting system, feeding system and passive
4.1.5. Safety analysis decay heat removal system. Under accident condition, the coolant is
Safety analysis of Brayton cycle cooled reactor concepts is a little bit vented into the containment through pipe break or venting valve. The
different from what we have done in PWR or SCWR. In simulation of mixture of hot coolant with cold CO2 in the containment is helpful to
PWR (Shakil et al., 2019) and SCWR (Wu et al., 2013), the turbine decrease the CO2 temperature and the backup pressure increased in the
system is regarded a constant pressure boundary and the feedwater inner containment is beneficial for CO2 natural circulation, as indicated
system is set as boundary with fixed flowrate at fixed temperature. For by the calculation in Pope’s paper (Pope et al., 2009). Results (Oh et al.,
S-CO2 Brayton cycle cooled reactor system, the turbine outlet condition 2017) indicated that this set of passive safety system assisted MMR
and the reactor inlet condition are strongly coupled with each other withstand accidents like loss of load, loss of load without reactor scram,
through the recuperator. The core outlet pressure depends on the loss of coolant accident and loss of coolant accident without reactor
compressor ratio while the core inlet temperature depends on re- scram.
cupeartor performance. The reactor inlet mass flowrate and tempera- The accident analysis was carried for S-CO2 Brayton cycle coupled
ture are no more fixed. Thus, the overall cycle simulation including STAR-LM, which was an autonomous, natural circulation lead fast re-
turbomachinery simulation is necessary for S-CO2 Brayton cycle cooled actor, by using a plant dynamics code named PDC (Moisseytsev and
reactor system. Sienicki, 2006). STAR-LM is a 400MWth lead fast reactor, which
The decay heat produced by the reactor after its shut-down should eliminates main coolant pump and applied natural circulation to
be removed to keep the reactor system integrated. Pope et al. (2009) transfer core power. The lead coolant at atmospheric pressure is put in a
carried out safety analysis for the 2400MWth MIT reactor with up- large vessel pool, which avoids the coolant blowing out accident. The
graded RELAP5-3D code, which was modified to be able to simulate the negative feedback reactivity also makes self-power-control possible
transient conditions of the S-CO2 Brayton cycle cooled reactor. CO2 (Moisseytsev and Sienicki, 2008). The calculation results showed great
turbomachinery model and heat transfer correlations for CO2 in a wide passive safety performance for S-CO2 Brayton cycle cooled STAR-LM
pressure range from subcritical to supercritical pressure and in different system under loss of heat sink, loss of load and CO2 pipe rupture ac-
channel dimensions were incorporated into RELAP5-3D code. Two cident even without reactor scram.
challenging accidents including loss of external load and loss of coolant As a new reactor concepts, safety analysis methodology of S-CO2
accident were selected to evaluate the reactor safety performance. Brayton cycle cooled reactor concept can refer to some existing reactor
Safety analysis results indicate that 2400MWth MIT reactor is able to concepts, which already has extensive research work, such as Helium
keep the fuel cladding temperature and turbomachinery speed in the Brayton cycle direct-cooled HTGR (Saez et al., 2006) and GFR (Dumaz
safety range for LOCA with and without reactor power trip as well as
17
Fig. 15. Additional applications of S-CO2 cycle based reactor system.
18
et al., 2007). For example, the consequence of different types of turbine configuration, which includes heat exchangers for heat absorption and
deblading accident in HTGR is crucial to the nuclear reactor safety rejection, compressor and turbine, as shown in Fig. 16.
(Saez et al., 2006), which should also be treated seriously for S-CO2 The small size of the S-CO2 heat removal system helps this system
Brayton cycle cooled reactor concept. be placed inside the reactor building, where there is limited space. The
decay heat from the reactor core is transferred to the S-CO2 flowing
through the water-CO2 heat exchanger. The heated CO2 enters the
4.1.6. Some other innovative ideas with S-CO2 CBC and nuclear
turbine and produces power and electricity, which is used to support
engineering
the compressor and generator operation as well as the air cooling
Tauveron et al. (2019) investigated the possibility of SMR-solar
system. The S-CO2 exiting the turbine is cooled by ambient air to the
hybridization which used S-CO2 Brayton cycle as its power conversion
desired temperature for the compressor inlet. Then the S-CO2 is com-
system. The layout is shown in Fig. 15-a). One option was to use CSP to
pressed by the compressor and enter the heat exchanger again. S-CO2
further elevate the SMR outlet temperature, which improved the overall
heat removal system is a self-propellant and self-sustaining system
cycle efficiency by 11% compared to the original S-CO2 Brayton cycle
which can transfer the decay heat from the reactor core to the atmo-
based SMR system. Another option was to use the low temperature CSP
sphere without using electricity from the grid and manual operation.
system to pre-heat the CO2 before entering into the water/CO2 heat
However, the start of the heat removal loop is initiated by an extra
exchanger. The electricity produced by the solar power was used to
battery, which can be recharged during the Brayton cycle operation and
drive the rejection system. This kind of system improved the cycle ef-
used for the next start-up.
ficiency by 2% compared to the original S-CO2 Brayton cycle based
The compactness of the S-CO2 Brayton cycle helps saved the space
SMR system.
in the reactor power plant. No more large water tanks locating at high
S-CO2 Brayton cycle cooled reactor system at MWe level, which is
position are needed which is important in the traditional passive safety
shown in Fig. 15-b), was able to provide electricity for moon or mars
system to provide natural circulation drive. The feasibility of this self-
exploration (Mazzetti et al., 2019). Nuclear reactor has quite a large
propelling heat removal system’s application on Boiling Water Reactors
power density while S-CO2 Brayton cycle has a high power conversion
was proved by Starflinger et al. (2018) numerically with the aid of
efficiency and a compact configuration. These unique features make S-
modified ATHLET code (Hofer et al., 2019). The technology feasibility
CO2 Brayton cycle cooled reactor system a perfect power supply in
in the laboratory is under investigation which is supported by European
space exploration mission.
SCO2-HERO project (Starflinger et al., 2017).
S-CO2 coupled to VHTR (Oh and Moore, 2005; Oh et al., 2006) and
There were three test loops in support of SCO2-HERO project to
advanced AGR (Yildiz et al., 2006) as an indirect power conversion can
investigate the turbomachinery performance, heat exchanger perfor-
be used to produce hydrogen generation with cycle efficiency higher
mance as well as the S-CO2 loop operation strategy, which were named
than that of the traditional Rankine cycle and helium Brayton cycle.
SCO2-HERO, SCARLETT and SUSEN separately. SCO2-HERO (Hacks
The 2400MWth S-CO2 cooled reactor can also be used to produce hy-
et al., 2019) was designed for the whole Brayton cycle operation in-
drogen through extracting coolant from the turbine outlet or from the
cluding TAC (as shown in Fig. 17-a). It will be connected to the glass
reactor to boiling loop of hydrogen production plant using high tem-
model, which was 1:10 scaled to model a two-loop pressurized water
perature steam electrolysis (HTES)(Memmott, 2007). The hydrogen
reactor, to prove the feasibility of applying S-CO2 heat removal system
production process is shown in Fig. 15-c).
to nuclear reactor system in laboratory. SCARLETT (Flaig et al., 2018)
operated under maximum pressure of 12 MPa and largest test tem-
4.2. Working as residual heat removal system perature up to 150 °C, which mainly contributed to test the diffusion
welded plate heat exchanger used in SCO2-HERO project (as shown in
S-CO2 Brayton cycle Is also used to remove the decay heat of Gen II Fig. 17-b). SUSEN (Vojacek et al., 2018) mainly focused on the compact
nuclear reactors for 72 h after their shut-down under accident condi- heat exchanger experiment (as shown in Fig. 17-c), which had a pres-
tions. Most of the reactors in operation worldwide are Gen II reactors, sure up to 25 MPa at the high pressure side, and a pressure up to
which still use active ways to remove the reactor core decay heat. S-CO2 12.5 MPa at the lower pressure side. The total heat input included a
Brayton cycle working as a heat removal system has a very simple
Fig. 16. The heat removal system using S-CO2 brayton cycle.
19
well as fusion reactor. S-CO2 Brayton cycle can be used as a power

conversion system or as a heat removal system for nuclear reactors, as
shown in Table 5. In the cases of S-CO2 cycle working as power con-
version system for nuclear reactor, S-CO2 cycle direct-cooled reactor
system has the potential to further increase the cycle efficiency and
reduce the plant cost. The S-CO2 cooled reactor concept development
and its safety performance should be carefully carried out. Several S-
CO2 cooled reactor concepts had been proposed and some typical ac-
cidents were analyzed. However, a more comprehensive accident ana-
lysis including all the possible accident scenarios should be further
analyzed to make sure the feasibility of the S-CO2 cooled reactor. The
control strategy under load change, start-up and shut-down should be
extensively carried out because these were scarce study on this research
area.
For S-CO2 cycle indirect-cooled reactor system, the reactor core
design is not necessary. More emphasis is put into the S-CO2 cycle
optimization. Existing optimization results indicates that S-CO2 re-
compression Brayton cycle is the best cycle configuration for nuclear
reactors whose core outlet temperature is between 450 and 650 °C.
Adding other gases into CO2 to change its critical temperature and
critical pressure, as well as other physics properties, is a promising
research area to further improve the overall cycle efficiency. Using dry
air cooling technology for S-CO2 Brayton cycle coupled GEN IV reactor
concept is still superior to LWR using water cooled steam Rankine cycle.
Air cooled S-CO2 cycle is helpful to expand the application range of
nuclear energy to remote and water-deficient areas.
The interaction between CO2 and sodium had been extensively
studied. However, the effects of penetrating CO2 into other reactor
systems still need further study. The control design for S-CO2 cycle
should be closely coupled to the reactor control system.
For S-CO2 cycle working as residual heat removal system, the self-
start process of the turbo system should be demonstrated by experi-
ment. At the same time, the reliability of the start-up battery should be
guaranteed in this safety system.
5. Conclusion
In general, S-CO2 Brayton cycle can be widely used in nuclear ap-

plications for the benefits of its high efficiency, high compactness and
high simplicity. The thermo-properties of S-CO2 as well as the Brayton
cycle layout are discussed in this paper to illustrate the distinctive
features of S-CO2 Brayton cycle, which makes it well suited to nuclear
applications. The operation status of existing integrated S-CO2 test
loops is extensively reviewed. Tens of S-CO2 test loops have been built
or under construction, achieving the highest S-CO2 turbine inlet tem-
perature of 715 °C, the largest electricity production of 2.35 MWe and
the highest turbomachinery rotating speed of 69,000 rpm. The experi-
mental studies for the integrated S-CO2 test loops demonstrate that S-
CO2 technology is practicable in laboratory and its commercial utili-
zation can be realized in the near future.
S-CO2 Brayton cycle is able to work as the direct and indirect power
conversion system for nuclear applications. It can also be used as a self-
propellant and self-sustaining decay heat removal system for existing
commercial PWR and BWR. The main research activities and progresses
Fig. 17. The main experimental facilities under European SCO2-HERO project. in S-CO2 Brayton cycle based nuclear applications are presented and
discussed. Conclusions and future perspectives are summarized as fol-
120 kW main heater and a 20 kW pre-heater, while the maximum op- lows:
eration temperature was 550 °C (Hajek and Frybort, 2014).
1. Various types of S-CO2 layouts have been optimized to better suited
to reactor concepts including SMR, Gen-IV reactors, fusion reactors.
4.3. Discussion Recompression Brayton cycle is the most recommended layout for
its high efficiency and simple layout. Blending CO2 with different
In this part, the main research works on S-CO2 Brayton cycle based gases can change the thermo-properties of the thermal transport
nuclear applications are reviewed. S-CO2 Brayton cycle has an extensive media, which has the potential to improve the overall cycle effi-
application in nuclear engineering, almost covering every existing nu- ciency under water cooled or dry cooled rejection system. More
clear reactor technology including SMR, GEN IV reactor concepts as experimental tests and numerical method development should be
20
Table 5
S-CO2 Brayton cycle application in nuclear applications.
Application Advantage Disadvantage
Direct power conversion system for Elimination of intermediate heat exchanger. Simpler and S-CO2 cooled reactor core design is needed. Safety performance of the newly
nuclear reactor more compact cycle configuration than indirect power developed reactor concept should be fully evaluated. Control strategy is more
conversion system difficult than that of indirect power conversion system
Indirect power conversion system No need for core design for the reactor system. High power No obvious defect
for nuclear reactor conversion system and small footprint
Heat removal system for nuclear Self-sustainable heat removal A start-up battery is needed. It’s not a total passive safety system
reactor
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Nuclear Engineering and Design 368 (2020) 110767

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Nuclear Engineering and Design

A review of research and development of supercritical carbon dioxide T

Junfeng Wangc, Dan Zhangd, Xu Rand

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Abbreviation KIER Korea Institute of Energy Research

2.2. Supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle and its layout

example, at pressure of 7.5 MPa and temperature of 36 °C, the CO2

Fig. 4. Principles and features of S-CO2 Brayton cycle.

Fig. 5. Typical S-CO2 Brayton cycle layout.

Name IST STEP EPS100 SCIEL

Fig. 6. The schematic map of the existing test loop worldwide.

et al., 2020), thermal and economical optimization of S-CO2 Brayton

Turbomachinery is the key component in a S-CO2 test loop. The

Fig. 7. Test results of the existing integrated test loops.

4.1.1. S-CO2 cooled reactor concept Table 3

Fig. 9. Existing S-CO2 cooled reactor concepts.

Fig. 15. Additional applications of S-CO2 cycle based reactor system.

well as fusion reactor. S-CO2 Brayton cycle can be used as a power

In general, S-CO2 Brayton cycle can be widely used in nuclear ap-

carried to confirm the accurate property prediction of CO2 based References

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