Fail safe nuclear cooling, energy storage, & drinking water
At nuclear power plants, solution removes nonfailsafe systems from backup cooling system(s), creates drinking water, and energy storage.
At Nuclear power plants on the coast or at rivers or lakes a method of removing non-fail-safe failure scenarios from the backup cooling system(s) of nuclear power plants is disclosed. This also provides, (with two reservoirs) power storage for time shifting of produced power to better meet demand.
In any event with or without energy storage the uphill reservoir or one of the uphill reservoirs if more than one are employed to hold reverse osmosis drinking water created from sea water, or recycled water. The power to run the RO is used when there is a excess of power in the area and can be used to create community drinking water.
In the event of a nuclear accident or breakdown or malfunction of the primary cooling systems, the gravity fed water from the RO or regular water store is fed to the system to provide cooling water to the system.
No large power is needed for pumping, removing the need for electrical or fuel driven pumps, removing the too low reliability of these systems as has been proven to be a problem in real time when they are most needed.
Both automatic control means and an optional manual override means can be included to increase MTBF of these systems in when they must be activated.
- Other (Please Explain Below)
It has never been done before to my knowledge.
The Fukashima disaster was the source of the inspiration, If this concept had been in place this disaster would not have happened.
No diesel generator is needed to start in a cooling failure scenario.
All gravity fed solution, only fails when gravity stops.
existing diesel backup cooling system need not be removed from existing retrofits. They can provide another redundancy for emergency cooling.
A new nuclear plant build system may or may not have this added redundancy, yet still have much improved safety and MTBF at the most critical times of a nuclear plant operation.
It is the novel cross functionality and application of existing technologies.
All aspects of this concept are all well established technologies with decades of use in society.
It is the integration and novel cross benefits of a novel cross coupled solution.
Concept exposure in the industry so that the concept is considered for at a minimum further study, modelling, and validation.
A nuclear plant (owner-operator that would be willing to fast track a safety upgrade to remove failure modes at its nuclear plant(s)) that happens to have the ideal specifics in location and topology that allows this concept to be realized to embrace the concept and start in earnest.
This is an open source concept.
I can be a part of the implementation.
but do not have to be.
What is important is that it get realized ASAP.
0
0
- Other (Please explain below)
- 1
- 5-10 years
My creativity, same creativity that allowed conception.
How much does a nuclear accident cost?
How much added cost would insurance cost if nuclear power plants had to insure themselves like all other industries.
Answer
It would pay for every aspect of this innovation.
How much is the lost human no-suffering, loss of property, loss of way of life worth?
discounted energy from the nuclear must run plant operation when low demand for energy allows for the reverse osmosis to be realized at a much lower cost. this is one of the savings that enables the economics.
The pumped storage aspect allows another form of monitization by time-shifting the unused nuclear power at low demand times to be used for pumped hydro. This can be with or without the RO as the water storage. This stored hydro power can be used for load leveling (AKA "killing the duck curve")
Caveat: Captain Obvuios says "The reservoir cannot be in same canyon as the nuclear power plant or it adds a new failure mechanism."
I hope you can see the value in this concept, don't know who else to share it with.
Then help facilitate the industry involvement.
I have no industry contacts, and do not work in this industry at this time.
Solve can expose the idea to those who can have influence in the industry to start the process of assessment.
Nuclear power plants are the longest build timeline on the planet.
The sooner this gets shared with nuclear plant architects the sooner it can be included in one of the nuclear plants scheduled to be built around the world.
It has just as much potential and possibly more for retrofits of existing nuclear power plants. Older designs coupled with wear-out issues may elevate retrofits to a higher importance than new nuclear builds.
- Connections to the MIT campus
- Impact Measurement Validation and Support
- Media Visibility and Exposure
- Grant Funding
- Preparation for Investment Discussions
- Other (Please Explain Below)

Chief Efficiency Officer