Nonlinear coordinated control for MHTGR-based nuclear steam supply system

Because of its inherent safety feature and potential economic competitiveness, modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR) has been seen as one of the best candidate for building the next generation nuclear energy systems. As a typical small modular reactor (SMR), MHTGR can be incorporated with new energy resources to build micro-grids, and can also be used to build large nuclear energy systems with inherent safety feature at any power rating. The nuclear steam supplying system (NSSS) of MHTGR-based plants is composed of an MHTGR and a once-through steam generator (OTSG), and its coordinated control is very crucial for guaranteeing the plant load-following function. Motivated by this, a nonlinear coordinated control for MHTGR-based NSSSs is proposed in this paper. By theoretic analysis, the sufficient condition for this newly-built control law to provide globally asymptotic closed-loop stability is given. Moreover, the feasibility of this novel coordinated controller is verified through numerical simulation, and simulation results show that this new control can provide satisfactory regulating performance for the NSSS by properly choosing the corresponding feedback gains. Moreover, this coordinated control has a very simple form, which means that it can be easily implemented in practical engineering.