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 Radiation Protection: Shielding to Minimize Exposure

Nuclear engineers work in conjunction with health physicists to assure that all activities involving radiation exposure to nuclear power plant workers or to the public are kept well below the U.S. requirements stated in Title 10, Part 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR 20). In fact, the current industry practice is to apply the ALARA (‘‘as low as reasonably achievable’’) principle to every exposure-related activity. To this end, nuclear engineers have been widely successful in designing nuclear plants that limit the dose to the public. (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…)

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…)

Wind Energy Industry Growth Forecast in United States and EU

wind energy industry growth
In 2006, total world wind generating electricity capacity was around 72,000 MW, producing some 160 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year of electricity. As of the end of 2006, the top wind producers were Germany, with 20,622 MW; Spain, with 11,615 MW; and the United States, with 11,575 MW.

Even so, wind accounts for only about 1 percent of the world’s total energy use. (more…)

Nuclear Fission and the Greenhouse Effect

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Within the coming years, fossil fuel will be failed back its main role as the ultimate main energy sources. Fossil fuels has known to have emit carbon energy and caused unrecoverable damages to environment in the long run. Low or zero carbon energy is gain popularity and nuclear power is known inline with this new movement in reducing the greenhouse effects. Nuclear power consisted of nuclear fusion and nuclear fission. Below we are explaining more detail about nuclear fission. (more…)

Uranium, Plutonium, and Nuclear Energy Conversion Process

uranium plutonium
Electricity generation through nuclear power plant is an enormously complex technical feat. It takes the combined skills of geologists, mine operators, engineers, and scientists, as well as large numbers of highly trained and skilled plant operators. The federal government oversees the construction and operation of these plants to make sure that they are built and operated to the very highest standards. Uranium and plutonium are the main radioactive component for nuclear power, which we will discuss bellow. (more…)

How Nuclear Power Plants Generate Nuclear Energy from Uranium

nuclear-power-plant
In the United States, Department of Energy has determined that nuclear power accounts for about 21% of the total electricity generated in the United States, an amount comparable to all the electricity used in California, Texas, and New York. In 2002, there were 65 nuclear power plants throughout the United States, located mostly on the East Coast and in the Midwest. (more…)