Reactors Redux

The description of seven reactor designs with interesting features is presented. WESTINGHOUSE AP1000's designers have significantly improved the safety features on an otherwise standard PWR. The water inside the sealed containment vessel heats up and turns into steam. The steam rises to the top, where the steel shell has been cooled by air circulating around the vessel. epR Europe's Evolutionary Power Reactor will be the world's largest pressurized-water reactor. The reactor is a descendant of the time-tested N4 and Konvoi reactors, the most modern reactors in France and Germany. An EPR's turbines can be maintained while it is in service; its manufacturers claim this will make for very little downtime and a lifetime of 60 years. NuScale A modular light-water reactor designed to replace coal- and gas-fired plants. The nuclear fuel assemblies sit inside a long core vessel, which in turn is housed in a secondary containment vessel immersed in water.