Basic concept of a near future BWR

This paper shows a basic concept of a near future boiling water reactor (BWR) aiming at evolutional safety and cost savings with minimum change from the current advanced BWR (ABWR). The plant output is uprated to 1500 MWe from 1356 MWe. This power uprate can bring about potential of 11% cost saving per MWe base. Safety improvement as a next generation large reactor is also achieved.

The advanced reinforced concrete containment vessel (ARCCV) is used for the containment vessel to improve safety for severe accidents. The peak pressure of the containment at severe accidents can be kept close to the design pressure. The advanced passive containment cooling system (APCS) is also provided and can accomplish no primary containment vessel (PCV) venting.

The advanced emergency core cooling system (AECCS) consists of four divisions in the front line. The advanced passive cooling system (APCS) is also provided. The combination of the four divisional emergency core cooling system (ECCS) and the passive safety system improves the plant performance in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA).

This plant concept is designed based on the heritage of the current ABWR. No more major research and development (R&D) are necessary. Therefore, construction and operation is possible in the early 2010s.