Batman
Batman
Batman
Session : 2022-23
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Sr.n Date Title Teacher’s
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Introduction
Nuclear reactors are the heart of a nuclear power plant. They
contain and control nuclear chain reactions that produce heat
through a physical process called fission. That heat is used to make
steam that spins a turbine to create electricity. About 10% of the
world's electricity is produced from nuclear energy. The main job of
a reactor is to house and control nuclear fission—a process where
atoms split and release energy.
The idea of nuclear power began in the 1930s, when physicist Enrico
Fermi first showed that neutrons could split atoms. There is a small
group of scientists that have proposed replacing 100% of the world’s
fossil fuel power plants with nuclear reactors as a way to solve
climate change. Many others propose nuclear grow to satisfy up to
20 percent of all our energy (not just electricity) needs. They
advocate that nuclear is a “clean” carbon-free source of power, but
they don’t look at the human impacts of these scenarios. Let’s do the
math... One nuclear power plant takes on average about 14- 1/2 years
to build, from the planning phase all the way to operation. According
to the World Health Organization, about 7.1 million people die from
air pollution each year, with more than 90% of these deaths from
energy-related combustion. So switching out our energy system to
nuclear would result in about 93 million people dying, as we wait for
all the new nuclear plants to be built in the all-nuclear scenario.
Utility-scale wind and solar farms, on the other hand, take on
average only 2 to 5 years, from the planning phase to operation.
Rooftop solar PV projects are down to only a 6-month timeline. So
transitioning to 100% renewables as soon as possible would result in
tens of millions fewer deaths. This illustrates a major problem with
nuclear power and why renewable energy -- in particular Wind,
Water, and Solar (WWS)-- avoids this problem. Finally, many
existing nuclear plants are so costly that their owners are
demanding subsidies to stay open. For example, in 2016, three
existing upstate New York nuclear plants requested and received
subsidies to stay open using the argument that the plants were
needed to keep emissions low. However, subsidizing such plants may
increase carbon emissions and costs relative to replacing the plants
with wind or solar as soon as possible. Thus, subsidizing nuclear
would result in higher emissions and costs over the long term than
replacing nuclear with renewables.
Lifetime of a reactor:-
Most of today's nuclear plants which were originally designed for
30 or 40-year operating lives. However, with major investments in
systems, structures and components operating lifetimes can be
extended, and in several countries there are active programmes
to extend operation. In the USA nearly all of the almost 100
reactors have been granted operating licence extensions from 40
to 60 years. This justifies significant capital expenditure in
upgrading systems and components, including building in extra
performance margins. Some will operate for 80 years or more .
Some components simply wear out, corrode or degrade to a low
level of efficiency. These need to be replaced. Steam generators
are the most prominent and expensive of these, and many have
been replaced after about 30 years where the reactor otherwise
has the prospect of running for 60 or more years. This is
essentially an economic decision. Lesser components are more
straightforward to replace as they age. In Candu reactors,
pressure tube replacement has been undertaken on some plants
after about 30 years of operation .A second issue is that of
obsolescence. For instance, older reactors have analogue
instrument and control systems. Some have been replaced with
digital systems. Thirdly, the properties of materials may degrade
with age, particularly with heat and neutron irradiation. In
respect to all these aspects, investment is needed to maintain
reliability and safety. Also, periodic safety reviews are
undertaken on older plants in line with international safety
conventions and principles to ensure that safety margins are
maintained . Another important issue is knowledge management
over the full lifecycle from design, through construction and
operation to decommissioning for reactors and other facilities.
This may span a century and involve several countries, and involve
a succession of companies. The plant lifespan will cover several
generations of engineers. Data needs to be transferable across
several generations of software and IT hardware, as well as being
shared with other operators of similar plants.* Significant
modifications may be made to the design over the life of the
plant, so original documentation is not sufficient, and loss of
design base knowledge can have huge implications . Knowledge
management is often a shared responsibility and is essential for
effective decision-making and the achievement of plant safety
and economics.