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The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The calorific value is the total energy released as heat when a substance undergoes complete combustion with oxygen under standard conditions.
Mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, is a blend of plutonium and natural or depleted uranium which behaves similarly (though not identically) to the enriched uranium feed for which most nuclear reactors were designed. MOX fuel is an alternative to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors which predominate nuclear power generation.
A 1 inch tall uranium fuel pellet is equivalent to about 1 ton of coal, 120 gallons of crude oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas. [15] In light-water reactors , 1 kg of natural uranium – following a corresponding enrichment and used for power generation– is equivalent to the energy content of nearly 10,000 kg of mineral oil or 14,000 ...
For example, if a 3000 MW thermal (equivalent to 1000 MW electric at 33.333% efficiency, which is typical of US LWRs) plant uses 24 tonnes of enriched uranium (tU) and operates at full power for 1 year, the average burnup of the fuel is (3000 MW·365 d)/24 metric tonnes = 45.63 GWd/t, or 45,625 MWd/tHM (where HM stands for heavy metal, meaning ...
For instance, the use of MOX fuel (239 Pu in a 238 U matrix) is likely to lead to the production of more 241 Am and heavier nuclides than a uranium/thorium based fuel (233 U in a 232 Th matrix). For highly enriched fuels used in marine reactors and research reactors , the isotope inventory will vary based on in-core fuel management and reactor ...
To express the efficiency of a generator or power plant as a percentage, invert the value if dimensionless notation or same unit are used. For example: A heat rate value of 5 gives an efficiency factor of 20%. A heat rate value of 2 kWh/kWh gives an efficiency factor of 50%. A heat rate value of 4 MJ/MJ gives an efficiency factor of 25%.
A gas generator is a device for generating gas. A gas generator may create gas by a chemical reaction or from a solid or liquid source, when storing a pressurized gas is undesirable or impractical. The term often refers to a device that uses a rocket propellant to generate large quantities of gas. The gas is typically used to drive a turbine ...
A gas-cooled reactor (GCR) is a nuclear reactor that uses graphite as a neutron moderator and a gas (carbon dioxide or helium in extant designs) as coolant. [1] Although there are many other types of reactor cooled by gas, the terms GCR and to a lesser extent gas cooled reactor are particularly used to refer to this type of reactor.