A typical commercial nuclear reactor produces 800 MW electri

A typical commercial nuclear reactor produces 800 MW electrical energy with a steam turbine loop. The steam is at 600 degree F. What is the thermal power being produced by the reactor assuming maximum efficiency? What is the thermal power if the efficiency is 30%?.

Solution

Maximum thermal efficiency of a nuclear power plant is about 38%.

To generate 800 MW of power the required thermal energy from reactor is 800 / 0.38 = 2105 MW.

For an efficiency of 30% the required thermal energy from reactor is 800 / 0.3 = 2666 MW.

A method to compute energy density of nuclear fuels is to figure out how much fission energy can be released from 1 mole of the fuel. The equation for energy density in MJ/kg is:

ED=fis[MeV/fission]NA[fissions/mol]A[g/mol]×1.60217×1019[Mega Joules/MeV]0.001kg/g=MJ/kg

where:

For uranium 235 the power density is about 79,390,000 KJ/Kg.