Shrouded power system

Abstract

A shrouded power system 150 for a nuclear power plant, preferably operating according to a closed Brayton cycle, wherein a turbine 30, recuperator 40, heat exchanger 50, and compressor 60 are arranged in flow series with a reactor core 20 housed within a pressure vessel 10. A working fluid flows from the compressor back into the pressure vessel via a shrouding system 70, such that the shrouding system creates a continuous pressure boundary enclosing the working fluid flowing at least from the pressure vessel up to the turbine system through turbine conduit 25. The shrouding system preferably also extends around the turbine (Fig. 5) or around both the turbine and compressor (Fig. 7). The shrouded power system may also comprise multiple turbines, compressors, recuperators and heat exchangers arranged in parallel, with the shrouding system either comprising multiple channels, each channel enveloping a single turbomachinery system, or a single plenum surrounding the multiple parallel turbomachinery systems (Fig. 9). [Figure 3]