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RE: 25% = 24.7%
By cblais19 on 10/24/2008 9:34:17 AM , Rating: 2
Amusingly enough, I just did a small paper advocating exactly that for one of my classes. One thing I did note that was news to me is that world production capability for the one-piece forged reactor shells is currently very low-which the top models like the Westinghouse AP1000 require. Various companies are looking into tooling up to increase production though, or countries can utilize a model like the CANDU reactors that do not require it.

Oh, and from what I've seen, solar has an average of 12-15% operating efficiency vrs an industry average of 86% for nuclear. Honestly, the next best energy source is by far wind, with 40-60%, depending on locale and generator used.

RE: 25% = 24.7%
By randomly on 10/24/2008 10:36:02 AM , Rating: 2
Japan Steel works is currently the only company capable of producing a one piece forged reactor pressure vessel for the large 1000-1650 MW reactors. They can only produce 4 per year. They plan to double that capacity in 2 years time.

There are 8 more companies adding large forging capability. Four in China, one each in Japan, France, Russia, and India.

China plans to deploy 100 Westinghouse AP1000 reactors by 2020. Cost of a single AP1000 (1100MW) reactor is $6-7 Billion USD with a planned construction time of 5 years. A rather big nut to swallow in the current credit crunch.

The first built units will undoubtedly take 6-10 years as much of the knowledgeable trained workforce in the US was lost during the 30 year hiatus in new nuclear plant construction. Most of the workforce on the new nuclear plant constructions have no previous experience in the field.

The average capacity factor for US wind power is around 35%. The average capacity factor for US nuclear plants is slightly over 90%.

RE: 25% = 24.7%
By Chernobyl68 on 10/24/2008 11:39:16 AM , Rating: 2
if you're talking about energy efficiency, any nuclear reactor that uses steam to drive turbines will at most run about 25% efficiency.

RE: 25% = 24.7%
By randomly on 10/24/2008 5:01:23 PM , Rating: 2
I believe he is talking about capacity factor, the actual average amount of energy produced over time vs the name plate rating of the equipment.

Most modern nuclear reactors have a thermal efficiency in the low 30% range. This is mostly a factor of how hot you run the coolant temperature.

RE: 25% = 24.7%
By Chernobyl68 on 10/24/2008 6:51:30 PM , Rating: 2
ah, ok. Not familiar with that term - the reactors I worked on weren't commercial! they are "corvettes" compared to the "trucks" of commercial power generation.

I was just pointing out the inefficiencies of the Carnot cycle. Any mainline plant is going to be operating at or near capacity while online. This would include most plants opearting on a steam system (nuclear, oil, coal), as it takes a very long time to bring the steam system up to operating temperature and pressure. Smaller plants with adjustable capacity like hydro, wind, or solar are mostly used as peak plants - because their generators can be brought online in a matter of minutes.
Solar requires daylight obviously and so that's 50% right there, and only certain hours of the day are ideal for power generation due to the angle of the sun and atmosphere. Not to mention clouds. So taking that in mind, yes, the 86 and 12 % sound good.

RE: 25% = 24.7%
By Clauzii on 10/24/2008 5:07:48 PM , Rating: 2

RE: 25% = 24.7%

RE: 25% = 24.7%

and this:



RE: 25% = 24.7%
Efficiency is Power out to the grid vs Thermal energy input.



