Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets?
We introduce the concept of the nuclear battery, a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in ever...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
2021
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136680 |
| _version_ | 1826189341932650496 |
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| author | Buongiorno, Jacopo Carmichael, Ben Dunkin, Bradley Parsons, John Smit, Dirk |
| author_facet | Buongiorno, Jacopo Carmichael, Ben Dunkin, Bradley Parsons, John Smit, Dirk |
| author_sort | Buongiorno, Jacopo |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We introduce the concept of the nuclear battery, a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in every sector of the economy. The cost targets for nuclear batteries in these markets are 20–50 USD/MWh<sub>t</sub> (6–15 USD/MMBTU) and 70–115 USD/MWh<sub>e</sub> for heat and electricity, respectively. We present a parametric study of the nuclear battery’s levelized cost of heat and electricity, suggesting that those cost targets are within reach. The cost of heat and electricity from nuclear batteries is expected to depend strongly on core power rating, fuel enrichment, fuel burnup, size of the onsite staff, fabrication costs and financing. Notional examples of cheap and expensive nuclear battery designs are provided. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:13:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/136680 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:13:14Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| publisher | Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1366802021-11-01T14:36:57Z Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? Buongiorno, Jacopo Carmichael, Ben Dunkin, Bradley Parsons, John Smit, Dirk We introduce the concept of the nuclear battery, a standardized, factory-fabricated, road transportable, plug-and-play micro-reactor. Nuclear batteries have the potential to provide on-demand, carbon-free, economic, resilient, and safe energy for distributed heat and electricity applications in every sector of the economy. The cost targets for nuclear batteries in these markets are 20–50 USD/MWh<sub>t</sub> (6–15 USD/MMBTU) and 70–115 USD/MWh<sub>e</sub> for heat and electricity, respectively. We present a parametric study of the nuclear battery’s levelized cost of heat and electricity, suggesting that those cost targets are within reach. The cost of heat and electricity from nuclear batteries is expected to depend strongly on core power rating, fuel enrichment, fuel burnup, size of the onsite staff, fabrication costs and financing. Notional examples of cheap and expensive nuclear battery designs are provided. 2021-10-28T12:31:46Z 2021-10-28T12:31:46Z 2021-07-20 2021-07-23T13:27:51Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136680 Energies 14 (14): 4385 (2021) PUBLISHER_CC http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en14144385 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| spellingShingle | Buongiorno, Jacopo Carmichael, Ben Dunkin, Bradley Parsons, John Smit, Dirk Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? |
| title | Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? |
| title_full | Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? |
| title_fullStr | Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? |
| title_short | Can Nuclear Batteries Be Economically Competitive in Large Markets? |
| title_sort | can nuclear batteries be economically competitive in large markets |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/136680 |
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