Techno-Economic Analysis of a Nuclear Reactor System coupled with a Liquid Metal Battery

Decarbonization of the electrical grid is crucial to a sustainable future, but upsets the present paradigm for electricity generation. This poses a challenge to the nuclear power industry, which has historically supplied nearly exclusively baseload power. As renewable sources, which are intermittent, have relatively low capacity factors, and follow natural patterns rather than responding to consumption, expand to make up a larger share of domestic energy production, there is an increasing demand for Nuclear Reactor Systems (NRSs) to be more dynamic. Research to this end is multi-faceted; microreactors are smaller than the existing Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) fleet and have potential to change their power output more rapidly. Alternatively, a nuclear reactor may be paired with an Energy Storage System (ESS) to decouple electrical demand and generation altogether.