• Energy Research
• 2012 close

Nuclear fission is currently internationally recognised as a key low carbon energy source, vital in the fight against global warming, which has stimulated much interest and recent investment. For example, RCUK's energy programme has identified nuclear fission as an essential part of the "trinity" of future fuel options for the UK, alongside renewables and clean coal. However, nuclear energy is controversial, with heartfelt opinion both for and against, and there is a real requirement to make it cleaner and greener. Large international programmes of work are needed to deliver safe, reliable, economic and sustainable nuclear energy on the scale required in both the short and long term, through Gen III+ & Gen IV reactor systems. A pressing worldwide need is the development of specific spent fuel reprocessing technology suitable for these new reactors (as well as for dealing with legacy waste fuel from old reactors). The REFINE programme will assemble a multidisciplinary team across five partner universities and NNL, the UK's national nuclear laboratory to address this fuel reprocessing issue. The consortium will carry out a materials research programme to deliver fuel reprocessing by developing materials electrosynthesis through direct oxide reduction and selective electrodissolution and electroplating from molten salt systems. Developing, optimising and controlling these processes will provide methods for, and a fundamental understanding of, how best to reprocess nuclear fuel. This is in addition to the development of techniques for new molten salt systems, new sensing and analysis technologies and the establishment of the kinetics and mechanisms by which molten salt processes occur. This will facilitate rapid process development and optimization, as well as the generation of applications in related areas. A key output of the programme will be the training and development of the multidisciplinary UK researchers required to make possible clean nuclear energy and generate complementary scientific and technological breakthroughs.

This concept adds storage to a Concentrating Solar Power Dish System in a novel and modular way by direct illumination of the thermal store using an off-axis parabolic reflector. This proposal is for Academic/Academic Knowledge Exchange from the Astronomy domain to the Energy domain. Background There is an enormous (20PWh p.a.) market globally for electricity generation Climate change concerns and increasing oil prices have lead to a rapid increase in the demand for renewable energy, including solar. This technology has several novel features and the proposed project will explore the configuration necessary for these features to confer the greatest competitive advantage. The thermal generation of electricity by concentration of solar radiation is a highly efficient method of power generation but is obviously limited to daylight hours. This concept, with an appropriate configuration, has the potential to beat the competition in several power generation application areas, especially off-grid. Thermal (as opposed to photovoltaic) generation of electricity by concentration of solar radiation has three configurations that are in use or being developed: * Heliostat * Parabolic Troughs: * Dish Collector with a Stirling Engine Thus far a configuration has not been designed which achieves the high concentration ratios and operating temperatures of a dish system in combination with an energy store so that electricity can be produced according to demand rather than simply during daylight hours. Drawing on their extensive experience of optical, thermal and systems engineering the UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UKATC) have developed this concept, which adds storage to a dish system in a novel and modular way by using direct illumination of the thermal store using an off-axis parabolic reflector. Uniquely, this removes the need for pipe work and heat transfer fluids in a trough system while retaining the high concentration ratio of a dish system; thus taking advantage of the positive aspects of two existing technologies. Technical Concept The proposed approach is to cut out the middleman (heat transfer fluids & heat exchangers) by directly illuminating a thermal store thus increasing overall system efficiency. This is done with an off-axis fixed focus reflector inspired by astronomical off-axis systems such as the Bell Labs Horn Antenna which was used to discover the microwave background. The reflector and storage co-rotate on an azimuth track while the reflector follows the sun in elevation throughout each day.