8 Super-critical water-cooled reactors

Supercritical water-cooled reactors (SCWRs) are considered as a potential development target of well-established water-cooled reactors, such as pressurized water reactors (PWRs), boiling water reactors (BWRs), or pressurized heavy water reactors (PHWRs). Applying technologies of supercritical fossil-fired power plants, the efficiency of these nuclear power plants can significantly be improved, and the construction costs can even be reduced because of simplification of plant design because the simple, once-through steam cycle of the SCWR does not require steam generators, steam dryers, or recirculation pumps. Examples of the latest options are demonstrated for the SCWR in this chapter. Several challenges in various technology areas affecting the core design are described.