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The SCWR operates at supercritical pressure. The reactor outlet coolant is supercritical water.Light water is used as a neutron moderator and coolant. Above the critical point, steam and liquid become the same density and are indistinguishable, eliminating the need for pressurizers and steam generators (), or jet/recirculation pumps, steam separators and dryers ().
Pumps circulate water from the spent fuel pool to heat exchangers, then back to the spent fuel pool. The water temperature in normal operating conditions is held below 50 °C (120 °F). [ 8 ] Radiolysis , the dissociation of molecules by radiation, is of particular concern in wet storage, as water may be split by residual radiation and hydrogen ...
The fact that fuel elements can only be stored for a limited period in water before the magnox cladding deteriorates, and must therefore inevitably be reprocessed, added to the costs of the magnox programme. [16]
An LPCI is an emergency system which consists of a pump that injects a coolant into the reactor vessel once it has been depressurized. In some nuclear power plants an LPCI is a mode of operation of a residual heat removal system, also known as an RHR or RHS but is generally called LPCI. It is also not a stand-alone valve or system.
The zirconium alloy tubes are about 1 cm in diameter, and the fuel cladding gap is filled with helium gas to improve the conduction of heat from the fuel to the cladding. There are about 179-264 fuel rods per fuel bundle and about 121 to 193 fuel bundles are loaded into a reactor core. Generally, the fuel bundles consist of fuel rods bundled ...
In 2014, the US Energy Information Administration estimated that for new nuclear plants going online in 2019, capital costs will make up 74% of the levelized cost of electricity; higher than the capital percentages for fossil-fuel power plants (63% for coal, 22% for natural gas), and lower than the capital percentages for some other nonfossil ...
The fuel is contained in steel cladding with liquid sodium filling in the space between the fuel and the cladding. A void above the fuel allows helium and radioactive xenon to be collected safely [citation needed] without significantly increasing pressure inside the fuel element, [citation needed] and also allows the fuel to expand without ...
However, a number of proposed and one in construction new nuclear reactor designs are lead-cooled. Fuel designs being explored for this reactor scheme include fertile uranium as a metal, metal oxide or metal nitride. [2] The lead-cooled reactor design has been proposed as a generation IV reactor. Plans for future implementation of this type of ...