Question

In: Physics

In a nuclear power plant, heat from radioactive decay boils water and produces steam. If 250...

In a nuclear power plant, heat from radioactive decay boils water and produces steam. If 250 Liters/min of water are turned to steam, and the efficiency of this system is 0 .5575% then determine:

a)How many Joules/minute can be produced by this generator? The latent heat of vaporization of water is 2,230 J/g.

b) if the energy content of the enhanced Uranium fuel used in the reactor is 500,000 MJ/kg (really!), how much Uranium PER YEAR is “used” to boil water? In other words, since all the used Uranium must be stored somewhere, how much waste does the reactor produce per year? Give your answer in metric tons (one ton = 1000 kg)

Solutions

Expert Solution

Amount of Uranium 'used' per year to boil water is 105.12ton and amount of waste per year is 104.54ton where only 0.58 ton Uranium effectively provided the amount of heat required to boil the water per year.


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