Analysis of Pressurized Water Reactor With Pinch, Exergy and Thermoeconomic Methods

Exergetic, pinch and thermoeconomic analyses were performed for a 1000 MW PWR power plant similar to BUSHEHR power plant. In these analyses, mass and energy conservation laws were applied to each component of the system. Quantitative balances of the exergy and exergetic cost for each component, and for the whole system was carefully considered. The exergoeconomic model, which represented the productive structure of the system considered, was used to visualize the cost formation process and the productive interaction between components. Simulation of power plant is performed in STEAM PRO 13.0. The computer program developed in this study can determine the production costs of each component of PWR power plant such as electricity production in steam turbines. In addition, this code can provide combined exergy and pinch representation for each component of system. This graphical representation helps us to show energy integration in the nuclear power plant. The code can be also be used to study plant characteristics, namely, thermodynamic performance and sensitivity to changes in process and/or component design variables.