Nuclear Generating Capacity In The United Kingdom

nuclear united kingdom
Following the recent completion of three nuclear power plants, there is now some 9.6 GW of nuclear capacity in the United Kingdom. The nuclear share of electrical output, which has stood at around 13% for many years, should rise to around 20% when this capacity is in full operation. A further two reactors are currently under construction which will increase the British nuclear capacity to more than 12 GW by the late 1980s, which could bring the nuclear share of electrical output to around 25%. (more…)

Peak Electricity Demand Impact and Reducing Power Needs During Peak Periods

Peak Electricity Demand
Power generation and distribution networks are built with spare capacity to meet peak periods of energy consumption is usually a time when demand for heating and / or cooling is particularly acute accommodate. Normally, peak electricity demand in some cases last just a few hours every year. And while the networks have always had to cope with peaks in recent years, the electricity consumption during peak hours has increased dramatically in the afternoon. (more…)

Solar Water Heating for Swimming Pools

Solar water heating for swimming pool rank as the most successful but least heralded commercial solar application. The use of solar energy for pool heating and the equipment and needs of pool owners make a perfect match. The storage unit for the solar heated water already exists—the swimming pool. The pump needed to push water through the solar collectors must be purchased irrespective of the technology used to heat the water. The pool owner merely has to purchase the solar collectors. Since those using the pool generally want the temperature of the pool to be no higher than 801F (271C), the solar collectors do not require a costly glass cover or expensive metal sheeting and piping. (more…)

CO2 Emission Reduction and Fossil Fuels Carbon

Reductions in carbon intensity, C/E, the carbon emitted per unit of energy generated, reflect the degree to which societies decarbonize their energy sources. The long-term trend has been a shift from coal to oil to natural gas––hydrocarbons with decreasing C/H ratios emitting progressively less CO2 per joule. However, the increasing use of clean low-carbon fuels is not sustainable without somehow disposing of excess carbon because it opposes the trend in the abundance of fossil fuels, with coal resources being the most abundant followed by oil and gas. (more…)

Nuclear Power Plant Safety Systems and Reactor Pressure Vessel

Because a nuclear explosion in a nuclear power plant is impossible due to the low fuel enrichment, the worst conceivable accident is a severe loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA), leading to a core meltdown. Although the nuclear fission and fusion process would be immediately stopped by a control rod insertion, the radioactive fission products would continue to generate decay heat in the fuel. Thus, a LOCA producing core uncovering could cause the fuel to melt. In the most extreme case, a molten mass would fall to the bottom of the reactor, melting through the reactor pressure vessel and the underlying concrete, and eventually coming to rest about 6.1 m (20 ft) underground. (more…)

Nuclear Power And World Electricity Generation

Sir Arthur Eddington’s general address on subatomic energy at the 1930 World Power Conference in Berlin stirred the imagination of every scientist and engineer present. The challenge was clear: find a practical means of accessing, controlling, and using the enormous energy locked in the atom as predicted by Einstein’s remarkable mass–energy relation, E=mc2. On December 2, 1942, Enrico Fermi transformed Eddington’s visionary challenge into reality by producing the world’s first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile 1. Six decades later, nuclear energy now produces 16% of the world’s electrical power. (more…)

Renewable Energy Sources in Europe: Geothermal, Wind Energy, Biomass

In Europe, modern renewable energy sources technologies were explored thoroughly for the first time after the oil embargo/ price crisis of 1973. Notably, market introduction of renewable energy technology started in about 1985, but the renewable energy sources industry has become vital only during the past decade. Accordingly, relevant statistical renewable energy sources data have been systematically compiled only over the past decade, although reliable and consistent statistical renewable energy sources data, collected since 1989, exist for all 15 countries of the European Union and for Western Europe (defined here as the EU-15 plus Switzerland, Norway, and Iceland). (more…)

Maglev Technology For High-Speed Transportation

High-speed maglev technology offers four main advantages: non-contact operation; low-mass vehicles (on a per seat basis, maglev vehicles weigh approximately one-third to three-quarters as much as high speed trains); high speed; and wayside system control and self-propelled vehicles (each car contains its own secondary part of a linear synchronous motors).

Non-contact operation means that vehicle traction does not depend on adhesion between contact surfaces, e.g., wheels and rails. (more…)

The Role Of Nuclear Energy In Reducing Security Of Supply Risk

nuclear energy supply
Nuclear energy has some distinct advantages in strengthening the external dimension of energy supply security. These include:

Nuclear power plants produce electricity domestically. Their capital and labor inputs are also provided domestically. With more than 90% of its inputs in terms of value sourced domestically, it can be considered a largely domestic source of energy and electricity.

• Of course, a majority of OECD countries import part or all of their requirements of uranium plutonium. (more…)

Fusion Reactor Steel Development for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)

ITMA Foundation, a group of researchers formed by Javier Belzunce, José Manuel Artimez, Ana Moran and Ruben Coto, has developed the first quality steel with a potential application as structural material in future nuclear fusion reactor (ITER ), whose design is an ambitious project that could facilitate future production of energy from hydrogen. (more…)

Next Page »