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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about electricity generation from nuclear power. For the general topic of nuclear power, see Nuclear power. A nuclear power station. The nuclear reactor is contained inside the cylindrical containment buildings to the right - left is a cooling tower venting water vapor from the non-radioactive side of the plant. A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity. Nuclear power plants are usually considered to be base load stations, which are best suited to constant power output.
Contents
[hide]
1 History 2 Systems
2.1 Nuclear reactors 2.2 Steam turbine 2.3 Generator 2.4 Cooling system 2.5 Safety valves 2.6 Feedwater pump 2.7 Emergency power supply
5.1 Complexity 5.2 Failure modes of nuclear power plants 5.3 Vulnerability of nuclear plants to attack 5.4 Plant location 5.5 Nuclear safety systems
6 Controversy 7 Reprocessing
8 Accident indemnification 9 Decommissioning 10 Historic accidents 11 Flexibility of nuclear power plants 12 Future power plants 13 See also 14 References 15 External links
[edit] History
The control room at a U.S. nuclear power plant. For more history, see nuclear reactor, nuclear power and nuclear fission. Electricity was generated for the first time ever by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951 at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho in the United States. On June 27, 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid started operations at Obninsk, USSR.[1] The world's first commercial scale power station, Calder Hall in England opened in October 17, 1956.[2]
[edit] Systems
BWR schematic. Pressurised water reactor This section has recently been translated from the German Wikipedia. The conversion to electrical energy takes place indirectly, as in conventional thermal power plants: The heat is produced by fission in a nuclear reactor (in light water reactor). Directly or indirectly water vapor-steam is produced. The pressurized steam is then usually fed to a multistage steam turbine. Steam turbines in Western nuclear power plants are among the largest steam turbines ever. After the steam turbine has expanded and partially condensed the steam, the remaining vapor is condensed in a condenser. The condenser is a heat exchanger which is connected to secondary side such as a river or a cooling tower. The water then pumped back into the nuclear reactor and the cycle begins again. The water-steam cycle corresponds to the Rankine cycle.
The nuclear reactor is the heart of the plant. In its central part, the reactor core's heat is generated by controlled nuclear fission. With this heat, a coolant is heated as it is pumped through the reactor and thereby removes the energy from the reactor. Heat from nuclear fission is used to raise steam, which runs through turbines, which in turn powers either ship's propellers or electrical generators. Since nuclear fission creates radioactivity, the reactor core is surrounded by a protective shield. This containment absorbs radiation and prevents radioactive material from being released into the environment. In addition, many reactors are equipped with a dome of concrete to protect the reactor against external impacts. In nuclear power plants, different types of reactors, nuclear fuels, and cooling circuits and moderators are sometimes used.
[edit] Generator
Main article: Electric generator The generator converts kinetic energy supplied by the turbine into electrical energy. Low-pole AC synchronous generators of high rated power are used.
Besides these main coolant pump of a nuclear power plant has usually still have several emergency supplies at different pressure levels, the case of disturbances (see Design basis accident) maintain the cooling of the reactor core.
Nuclear engineers Reactor operators Health physicists Emergency response team personnel Nuclear Regulatory Commission Resident Inspectors
In the United States and Canada, workers except for management, professional (such as engineers) and security personnel are likely to be members of either the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) or the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA).
[edit] Economics
Main article: Economics of new nuclear power plants
The economics of new nuclear power plants is a controversial subject, since there are diverging views on this topic, and multi-billion dollar investments ride on the choice of an energy source. Nuclear power plants typically have high capital costs for building the plant, but low direct fuel costs (with much of the costs of fuel extraction, processing, use and long term storage externalized). Therefore, comparison with other power generation methods is strongly dependent on assumptions about construction timescales and capital financing for nuclear plants. Cost estimates also need to take into account plant decommissioning and nuclear waste storage costs. On the other hand measures to mitigate global warming, such as a carbon tax or carbon emissions trading, may favor the economics of nuclear power. In recent years there has been a slowdown of electricity demand growth and financing has become more difficult, which has an impact on large projects such as nuclear reactors, with very large upfront costs and long project cycles which carry a large variety of risks.[4] In Eastern Europe, a number of long-established projects are struggling to find finance, notably Belene in Bulgaria and the additional reactors at Cernavoda in Romania, and some potential backers have pulled out.[4] Where cheap gas is available and its future supply relatively secure, this also poses a major problem for nuclear projects.[4] Analysis of the economics of nuclear power must take into account who bears the risks of future uncertainties. To date all operating nuclear power plants were developed by state-owned or regulated utility monopolies[5] where many of the risks associated with construction costs, operating performance, fuel price, and other factors were borne by consumers rather than suppliers. Many countries have now liberalized the electricity market where these risks, and the risk of cheaper competitors emerging before capital costs are recovered, are borne by plant suppliers and operators rather than consumers, which leads to a significantly different evaluation of the economics of new nuclear power plants.[6] Following the 2011 Fukushima I nuclear accidents, costs are likely to go up for currently operating and new nuclear power plants, due to increased requirements for on-site spent fuel management and elevated design basis threats.[7]
[edit] Safety
There are trades to be made between safety, economic and technical properties of different reactor designs for particular applications. Historically these decisions were often made in private by scientists, regulators and engineers, but this may be considered problematic, and since Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, many involved now consider informed consent and morality should be primary considerations.[8]
[edit] Complexity
Nuclear power plants are some of the most sophisticated and complex energy systems ever designed.[9] Any complex system, no matter how well it is designed and engineered, cannot be deemed failure-proof.[10] Stephanie Cooke has said that: The reactors themselves were enormously complex machines with an incalculable number of things that could go wrong. When that happened at Three Mile Island in 1979, another fault line in the nuclear world was exposed. One malfunction led to another, and then to a series of others, until the core of the reactor itself began to melt, and even the world's most highly trained nuclear engineers did not know how to respond. The accident revealed serious deficiencies in a system that was meant to protect public health and safety.[11]
A fundamental issue related to complexity is that nuclear power systems have exceedingly long lifetimes. The timeframe involved from the start of construction of a commercial nuclear power station, through to the safe disposal of its last radioactive waste, may be 100 to 150 years.[9]
In September 1980, Iran bombed the Al Tuwaitha nuclear complex in Iraq. In June 1981, an Israeli air strike completely destroyed Iraqs Osirak nuclear research facility. Between 1984 and 1987, Iraq bombed Irans Bushehr nuclear plant six times. In Iraq in 1991, the U.S. bombed three nuclear reactors and an enrichment pilot facility. In 1991, Iraq launched Scud missiles at Israels Dimona nuclear power plant. In September 2007, Israel bombed a Syrian reactor under construction.[16]
In the U.S., plants are surrounded by a double row of tall fences which are electronically monitored. The plant grounds are patrolled by a sizeable force of armed guards.[17] The NRC's "Design Basis Threat" criteria for plants is a secret, and so what size of attacking force the plants are able to protect against is unknown. However, to scram (make an emergency shutdown) a plant takes fewer than 5 seconds while unimpeded restart takes hours, severely hampering a terrorist force in a goal to release radioactivity.
Attack from the air is an issue that has been highlighted since the September 11 attacks in the U.S. However, it was in 1972 when three hijackers took control of a domestic passenger flight along the east coast of the U.S. and threatened to crash the plane into a U.S. nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The plane got as close as 8,000 feet above the site before the hijackers demands were met.[18][19] The most important barrier against the release of radioactivity in the event of an aircraft strike on a nuclear power plant is the containment building and its missile shield. Current NRC Chairman Dale Klein has said "Nuclear power plants are inherently robust structures that our studies show provide adequate protection in a hypothetical attack by an airplane. The NRC has also taken actions that require nuclear power plant operators to be able to manage large fires or explosions no matter what has caused them."[20] In addition, supporters point to large studies carried out by the U.S. Electric Power Research Institute that tested the robustness of both reactor and waste fuel storage and found that they should be able to sustain a terrorist attack comparable to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Spent fuel is usually housed inside the plant's "protected zone"[21] or a spent nuclear fuel shipping cask; stealing it for use in a "dirty bomb" is extremely difficult. Exposure to the intense radiation would almost certainly quickly incapacitate or kill anyone who attempts to do so.[22] In September 2010, analysis of the Stuxnet computer worm suggested that it was designed to sabotage a nuclear power plant. Such a cyber attack would bypass the physical safeguards in place and so the exploit demonstrates an important new vulnerability.[23]
The three primary objectives of nuclear safety systems as defined by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are to shut down the reactor, maintain it in a shutdown condition, and prevent the release of radioactive material during events and accidents.[30] These objectives are accomplished using a variety of equipment, which is part of different systems, of which each performs specific functions.
[edit] Controversy
Main article: Nuclear power debate The abandoned city of Prypiat, Ukraine, following the Chernobyl disaster. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is in the background. The nuclear power debate is about the controversy[31][32][33][34] which has surrounded the deployment and use of nuclear fission reactors to generate electricity from nuclear fuel for civilian purposes. The debate about nuclear power peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, when it "reached an intensity unprecedented in the history of technology controversies", in some countries.[35][36] Proponents argue that nuclear power is a sustainable energy source which reduces carbon emissions and can increase energy security if its use supplants a dependence on imported fuels. [37] Proponents advance the notion that nuclear power produces virtually no air pollution, in contrast to the chief viable alternative of fossil fuel. Proponents also believe that nuclear power is the only viable course to achieve energy independence for most Western countries. They emphasize that the risks of storing waste are small and can be further reduced by using the latest technology in newer reactors, and the operational safety record in the Western world is excellent when compared to the other major kinds of power plants.[38] Opponents say that nuclear power poses many threats to people and the environment. These threats include health risks and environmental damage from uranium mining, processing and transport, the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or sabotage, and the unsolved problem of radioactive nuclear waste.[39][40][41] They also contend that reactors themselves are enormously complex machines where many things can and do go wrong, and there have been many serious nuclear accidents.[42][43] Critics do not believe that these risks can be reduced through new technology.[44] They argue that when all the energy-intensive stages of the nuclear fuel chain are considered, from uranium mining to nuclear decommissioning, nuclear power is not a lowcarbon electricity source.[45][46][47]
[edit] Reprocessing
Main article: Nuclear reprocessing Nuclear reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel.[48] Reprocessing serves multiple purposes, whose relative importance has changed over time. Originally reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing nuclear weapons. With the commercialization of nuclear power, the reprocessed plutonium was recycled back into MOX nuclear fuel for thermal reactors.[49] The reprocessed uranium, which constitutes the bulk of the spent fuel material, can in principle also be re-used as fuel, but that is only economic when uranium prices are high. Finally, the breeder reactor can employ not only the recycled plutonium and uranium in spent fuel, but all the actinides, closing
the nuclear fuel cycle and potentially multiplying the energy extracted from natural uranium by more than 60 times.[50] Nuclear reprocessing reduces the volume of high-level waste, but by itself does not reduce radioactivity or heat generation and therefore does not eliminate the need for a geological waste repository. Reprocessing has been politically controversial because of the potential to contribute to nuclear proliferation, the potential vulnerability to nuclear terrorism, the political challenges of repository siting (a problem that applies equally to direct disposal of spent fuel), and because of its high cost compared to the once-through fuel cycle.[51] The Obama administration stepped back from President Bush's plans for commercial-scale reprocessing and reverted to a program focused on reprocessing-related scientific research.[52]
[edit] Decommissioning
Main article: Nuclear decommissioning Nuclear decommissioning is the dismantling of a nuclear power plant and decontamination of the site to a state no longer requiring protection from radiation for the general public. The main difference from the dismantling of other power plants is the presence of radioactive material that requires special precautions. Generally speaking, nuclear plants were designed for a life of about 30 years.[citation needed] Newer plants are designed for a 40 to 60-year operating life.[citation needed] Decommissioning involves many administrative and technical actions. It includes all clean-up of radioactivity and progressive demolition of the plant. Once a facility is decommissioned, there should no longer be any danger of a radioactive accident or to any persons visiting it. After a facility has been completely decommissioned it is released from regulatory control, and the licensee of the plant no longer has responsibility for its nuclear safety.
The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the worst nuclear accident in 25 years, displaced 50,000 households after radiation leaked into the air, soil and sea.[55] Radiation checks led to bans of some shipments of vegetables and fish.[56] Main article: Nuclear power accidents by country The nuclear industry says that new technology and oversight have made nuclear plants much safer, but 57 accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. Two thirds of these mishaps occurred in the US.[57] The French Atomic Energy Agency (CEA) has concluded that technical innovation cannot eliminate the risk of human errors in nuclear plant operation. An interdisciplinary team from MIT have estimated that given the expected growth of nuclear power from 20052055, at least four serious nuclear power accidents would be expected in that period.[57]
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List of nuclear reactors Nuclear power by country Nuclear Information and Resource Service Gerald W. Brown, American whistleblower on passive fire protection/circuit integrity deficiencies in US and Canadian plants Nuclear fuel cycle Containment building Safety engineering SCRAM FEMA Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the USA Auxiliary feedwater Uranium market
[edit] References
1. ^ World Nuclear Association, Nuclear Power in Russia, June 2006 2. ^ 1956: Queen switches on nuclear power, BBC, 17/10/2005 3. ^ "How nuclear power works". HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved September 25, 2008. 4. ^ a b c Kidd, Steve (January 21, 2011). "New reactorsmore or less?". Nuclear
Engineering International.
5. ^ Ed Crooks (12 September 2010). "Nuclear: New dawn now seems limited to the east".
p. xv.
8. ^ Pandora's box: A is for Atom - Adam Curtis 9. ^ a b Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen (2008). Nuclear power the energy balance 10. ^ Diaz Maurin, Franois (26 March, 2011). "Fukushima: Consequences of Systemic
Problems in Nuclear Plant Design". Economic & Political Weekly (Mumbai) 46 (13): 10 12.
11. ^ Stephanie Cooke (2009). In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age,
13. ^ Globalsecurity.org: Nuclear Power Plants: Vulnerability to Terrorist Attack p. 3. 14. ^ Safety of Nuclear Power Reactors, World Nuclear Association, http://www.world-
nuclear.org/info/inf06.html
15. ^ Matthew Wald (June 15, 2011). "U.S. Reactors Unprepared for Total Power Loss,
AFFIRMATION OF THE FINAL DBT RULE". Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 2007-04-07.
21. ^ "The Nuclear Fuel Cycle". Information and Issue Briefs. World Nuclear Association.
electricity generation. London: Overseas Development Institute and Institute of Development Studies
25. ^ COMMUNIQUE N7 - INCIDENT SUR LE SITE DU BLAYAIS ASN, published
Nuclear Accident Anticipated in the Japanese Islands (Abstract), Katsuhiko Ishibashi, 23rd. General Assembly of IUGG, 2003, Sapporo, Japan, accessed 2011-03-28
30. ^ "Glossary: Safety-related". Retrieved 2011-03-20. 31. ^ MacKenzie, James J. (December 1977). "Review of The Nuclear Power Controversy]
by Arthur W. Murphy". The Quarterly Review of Biology 52 (4): 4678. doi:10.1086/410301. JSTOR 2823429.
32. ^ Walker, J. Samuel (10 January 2006). Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in
Times, see A Reasonable Bet on Nuclear Power and Revisiting Nuclear Power: A Debate and A Comeback for Nuclear Power?
34. ^ In July 2010 the nuclear power debate again played out on the pages of the New York
Times, see Were Not Ready Nuclear Energy: The Safety Issues
35. ^ Kitschelt, Herbert P. (1986). "Political Opportunity and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear
Movements in Four Democracies" (PDF). British Journal of Political Science 16 (1): 57. doi:10.1017/S000712340000380X.
36. ^ Jim Falk (1982). Global Fission: The Battle Over Nuclear Power, Oxford University
Press.
37. ^ U.S. Energy Legislation May Be `Renaissance' for Nuclear Power. 38. ^ Bernard Cohen. "The Nuclear Energy Option". Retrieved 2009-12-09. 39. ^ "Nuclear Energy is not a New Clear Resource.". Theworldreporter.com. 2010-09-02. 40. ^ Greenpeace International and European Renewable Energy Council (January 2007).
peace movements in comparative perspective. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 44. ISBN 9780742518278.
42. ^ Stephanie Cooke (2009). In Mortal Hands: A Cautionary History of the Nuclear Age,
plutonium stocks. Information from the World Nuclear Association about MOX
50. ^ "Supply of Uranium". World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 2010-01-29. 51. ^ Harold Feiveson et al (2011). "Managing nuclear spent fuel: Policy lessons from a 10-
56. ^ Mari Saito (May 7, 2011). "Japan anti-nuclear protesters rally after PM call to close
plant". Reuters.
57. ^ a b Benjamin K. Sovacool (January 2011). "Second Thoughts About Nuclear Power".
Chance unserer Zeit. (english Nuclear power today and tomorrow: Nuclear research as chance of our time) In: Bild d. Wissenschaft. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1971. ISBN 3421022623.
61. ^ "Next-generation Nuclear Technology: The ESBWR" (PDF). American Nuclear
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63. ^ "Fusion energy: the agony, the ecstasy and alternatives". PhysicsWorld.com. Retrieved
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IPPNW - International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (Nobel Peace Prize 1985) MAPW - Information on Australia's research reactor Freeview Video 'Nuclear Power Plants - What's the Problem' A Royal Institution Lecture by John Collier by the Vega Science Trust. Non Destructive Testing for Nuclear Power Plants Web-based simple nuclear power plant game Uranium.Info publishing uranium price since 1968. Information about all NPP in the world U.S. plants and operators SCK.CEN Belgian Nuclear Research Centre in Mol. Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage - World Nuclear Association Glossary of Nuclear Terms
Protection against Sabotage of Nuclear Facilities: Using Morphological Analysis in Revising the Design Basis Threat From the Swedish Morphological Society Critical Hour: Three Mile Island, The Nuclear Legacy, And National Security Online book by Albert J. Fritsch, Arthur H. Purcell, and Mary Byrd Davis (2005). Updated edition June 2006 An Interactive VR Panorama of the cooling towers at Temelin Nuclear Power Plant, Czech Republic Interactive map with all nuclear power plants US and worldwide (Note: missing many plants)
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