有限时间热力学是现代热力学的一个分支，其主要考虑非平衡系统在有限时间限制下的热力学规律，在优化实际的热功转换过程有着巨大的潜力。在众多潜在应用中，核电站的应用尤其重要。现代的核能发电厂设计以第二代核反应堆的设计作为基本构型，在发展过程中主要从材料与结构上不断改进与优化，提高其发电量与安全性。然而并未将上世纪70 年代发展而来的有限时间热力学规律充分应用于核能发电厂的设计之中。核能发电厂的蒸汽动力循环除去相变过程与布雷顿循环的过程一致。本文将总结核能发电厂的发展历程以及主要结构，结合调研结果从有限时间热力学的角度分析布雷顿循环，考虑实际的传热过程得到与CA 效率形式同样的最大功率效率，并给出在热源与冷源温度确定情况下达到最大功率的方案。本项目的研究表明在实际核能发电厂工作时，可以通过调节相关参数满足负载的变化及其参数优化。

Finite time thermodynamics is a branch of modern thermodynamics. Finite time thermodynamics mainly considers the thermodynamic law of non-equilibrium system which is under the finite time condition and has great potential in optimizing the actual process in which thermal energy converts to power. Among lots of potential applications, nuclear power plants (NPP) are particularly important. The designs of modern nuclear power plant are based on the designs of the second-generation nuclear reactor, and the improvement of the NPP is mainly focus on the material and the structure in order to increase nuclear power capacity and security. However, the theory of finite time thermodynamics developed from 1970 s has not been considered to apply when designing a NPP. According to the investigation, it was found that the steam power cycle occurring in the NPP is similar to the Brayton Cycle, if ignoring the phase transformation process in the steam power cycle. The development and the structure of the NPP will be reviewed. The Brayton cycle will be analyzed from the point of view of finite-time thermodynamics. Considering the actual heat transfer process, the maximum power efficiency is obtained in the same form as the CA efficiency, and the scheme to achieve the maximum power is given under the condition that the temperature of heat source and cold source is determined. In practical nuclear power plant, the load-following can be satisfied by adjusting the relevant parameters.