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Alstom is the partner for the power conversion unit, but now has been acquired (at least the power business) by General Electric, which means that final decisions regarding development are likely to be made in Connecticut, USA and not in Paris or Belfort anymore.
If the CEA finances the development I guess they will surely do it.
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This ASTRID project is likely to be dead in the water if Hollande and the Socialists are re-elected to government.
For now it seems very unlikely that Hollande will be re-elected, it will probably be the nominee of "Les Républicains" (the classical right side party). However even if the right side party wins there will be a lot of opposition against ASTRID, there are a lot of problems right now with the funding of the EPRs at Hinkley Point.
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Nitrogen turbines are effectively the same as air turbines though right?
As Lindsay said earlier in this thread, this turbine will be quite different from the usual gas turbines. The pressure is much higher than with usual gas turbines and the temperature much lower. Also there is not just the turbine to develop but the entire loop, especially the sodium-nitrogen heat exchangers.
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All CEA eggs are apparently in the ASTRID basket, which I also regard as a duplication of effort, because these fourth generation SFR types are also being developed in other countries
They already have a lot of experience with SFRs. Taking the MSR path would be like beginning from scratch. And they don't have a lot of financing and time (they want an industrial generation 4 reactor ready before 2040).
But I would also prefer that they work on MSRs or molten salt cooled reactors.
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Nitrogen CCGTs? What about the supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle?
Hot liquid sodium reacts chemically with steam and CO2 but not with nitrogen so that is why they want to use nitrogen for ASTRID. It is an important element for the safety demonstration.
However the supercritical CO2 cycle seems very good for molten salt reactors.