Cogeneration capability

windmill · Post by **windmill** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:38 pm

Cooling the magrid seems to be a topic that arises from time to time on this and other forums. I was wondering: how practical it would be to use a closed brayton cycle helium gas turbine like the ones proposed for next-generation fission plants, to generate power from the magrid cooling system? You could plumb helium at high pressure through channels immediately below the magnet case surfaces, and get 20 megawatts of otherwise wasted power, while shielding the superconducting magnets from the heat of the alphas in a P11B fueled design. I'm not sure if this would work with neutrons in a DD plant.

hanelyp · Post by **hanelyp** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 2:37 am

Efficiency in converting 'waste' heat is constrained by how hot you allow components inside the reactor to get, and thus how hot the coolant gets. Whether you'd get enough electricity out to be worth the trouble can't be decided until more engineering questions are answered. My impression is that direct conversion efficiency is a bit overstated, and converting heat from the outer shell would be worth it in some cases.

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:43 pm

hanelyp wrote:Efficiency in converting 'waste' heat is constrained by how hot you allow components inside the reactor to get, and thus how hot the coolant gets. Whether you'd get enough electricity out to be worth the trouble can't be decided until more engineering questions are answered. My impression is that direct conversion efficiency is a bit overstated, and converting heat from the outer shell would be worth it in some cases.

Concur.