3 ms·
Light water reactors (like the AP300) don't get hot enough for molten salt storage. That requires one of the high temperature Gen IV reactors.
by p1mrx 3y ago
Light water reactors (like the AP300) don't get hot enough for molten salt storage. That requires one of the high temperature Gen IV reactors.
- innrautha 3y agoThat just means for LWR applications you need to switch the storage media. Any thermal plant could implement heat storage if they identify a medium with a large latent heat of fusion that is around where you want to preheat your working fluid to. The salt used for energy storage is normally a eutectic mixture of ~60% sodium nitrate and ~40% potassium nitrate (not NaCl) and has a melting temperature of ~260 °C. The secondary on a PWR has a maximum temperature of 275 °C. So within the liquid range of typical thermal storage salts, though I suspect finer tuning of the salt composition would be used to reduce the melting temperature to closer to the feed water temperature of ~220 °C.
- p1mrx 3y agoHeat storage is technically possible at any temperature, but it's much more cost effective at 600°C than 300°C.