Identifying Best Performance Scenarios For Micro Nuclear Reactors During Grid Disruption

Year 2024, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 78 - 89, 20.12.2024

Carlan Ivey Michael Kay , Kristin Thoney-barletta Thom Hodgson Brandon Mcconnell

Abstract

Micro Nuclear Reactors (MNRs) are an emerging innovation in nuclear technology as small, portable, and self-sufficient reactor units in the size of a standard 40-foot shipping container. An MNR functions as a "nuclear battery," where each unit can power load capacities from 500 kilowatts (kW) to 5 megawatts (MW) over the lifetime of 1–10 years. This technology may deploy by the end of the 2020 decade, so private and government organizations have prepared for potential operational use for energy resilience. This research develops an emergency grid disruption timeline with MNR deployments to respond and recover grids after severe weather events. This response integrates a series of models for transportation networks, power distribution, and decision strategies that utilize MNR capabilities while using real-world disruption events within the past decade for scenarios. The study then seeks to analyze the performance of MNRs when using different deployment strategies for emergency grid disruption response. First, this research investigates the trade-offs between time and cost in the emergency grid disruption timeline when integrating MNRs. This research also explores the conditions of disruption scenarios that contribute to the best MNR performance in grid recovery.

Keywords

micro nuclear reactors, disaster response, disaster recovery, microgrid

Supporting Institution

The fourth author was supported in part by a grant from the Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics (CAMAL).

Thanks

The authors benefited greatly from thoughtful suggestions from Dr. Russell E. King both during research and the writing of this paper. A special thanks to Dr. Biays Bowerman and Dr. Susan Peppers for their mentorship of the first author.

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