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Diagram of an RTG used on the Cassini probe. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG), sometimes referred to as a radioisotope power system (RPS), is a type of nuclear battery that uses an array of thermocouples to convert the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material into electricity by the Seebeck effect.
The nuclear powered steam generator started as a power plant for the first nuclear submarine, the USS Nautilus. It was designed and built by the Westinghouse Electric Company power company for the submarine; from there the company started its development and research of nuclear-powered steam generators. [ 3 ]
In commercial nuclear power plants carbon dioxide has usually been used, for example in current British AGR nuclear power plants and formerly in a number of first generation British, French, Italian, and Japanese plants. Nitrogen [89] and helium have also been used, helium being considered particularly suitable for high temperature designs. Use ...
The generator contains the strontium-90 radioisotope, with a heating power of 250W and 1,480 TBq of radioactivity – equivalent to some 280 grams (9.9 oz) of Sr-90. [4] Mass-scale production of RTGs in the Soviet Union was the responsibility of a plant called Baltiyets, in Narva , Estonia .
Economic factors of scale mean that nuclear reactors tend to be large, to such an extent that size itself becomes a limiting factor. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster caused a major set-back for the nuclear industry, with worldwide suspension of development, cutting down of funding, and closure of reactor plants.
An atomic battery, nuclear battery, radioisotope battery or radioisotope generator uses energy from the decay of a radioactive isotope to generate electricity. Like a nuclear reactor , it generates electricity from nuclear energy, but it differs by not using a chain reaction .
The world's first and only nuclear power plant that put Gen IV reactors into commercial use is Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant. The reactor is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, started its building process on September 21 2014, [75] started to generate power December 20, 2021, [76] and was put into commercial operation in December 12, 2023 ...
These reactors are made to fit in small areas where it would be inefficient to introduce a larger power plant, but still has energy needs unsuitable for generators. Nuclear microreactors, a subcategory of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), are a developing type of nuclear power plant that is designed to generate electricity on a smaller scale than ...