ALTERNATIVE ADVANCED POWER GENERATION TECHNOLOGY CHARACTERIZATIONS M. E. Samsa Argonne National Laboratory - Argonne, Illinois 60439 The role of the Satellite Power System (SPS) as a means of producing electrical energy early in the twenty-first century will depend, to a major extent, on how well it compares with other available alternatives during that time period. The basis for comparison will include all aspects of electrical power production such as fuel and non-fuel resource use, conversion of efficiency, environmental residuals, construction and operational labor requirements, costs, and other effects such as socioeconomic and macroeconomic impacts. The starting point for the comparative assessment of these and other issues is the description of the SPS Reference Design Concept and corresponding descriptions of a range of alternative terrestrial technologies for electric power production in the post-2000 time period. NASA and NASA contractors have defined the SPS reference design concept, and thus the purpose of the alternative technology characterizations is to provide a detailed and consistent description of terrestrial alternatives for electric power generation in the time period of interest. Seven alternative technologies that have been selected for comparison with the SPS and whose major characteristics are displayed in Tables 1 and 2 include the following: Improved Conventional Technologies • Conventional Coal Combustion with Wellman-Lord Flue Gas Desulfurization • Light Water Reactor with Improved Fuel Utilization Near-Term Technologies • Gas Turbine Combined Cycle with Integral Low Btu Gasifier • Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor Advanced Technologies • Central Station Photovoltaic without Storage • Residential Rooftop Photovoltaic with Advanced Lead-Acid Battery Storage • Magnetic Confinement Fusion An important consideration was to assure consistency in terms of the level of technological development assumed to occur between now and the year 2000, and in terms of the fuel characteristics and cost estimating relationships used in the characterization of these systems. A high level of consistency is necessary to provide standardized technological benchmarks for further analysis and comparison with the SPS reference system. The general approach was to review a broad segment of the recent technical literature concerned with the characteristics of the individual technologies and their accompanying fuel cycles. This data base of information was then synthesized into the alternative technology reference characterizations by adapting the data into internally consistent energy and materials balances for each of the systems. Where appropriate, a nominal generating capacity of 1250 MWe was selected for the reference technologies. Only the central
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