NUCLEAR POWERPLANT

DAN EMIL A. BERNARDINO

SHERWIN Q. BIHASA
HARRY LHON B. POBLETE
WHAT IS NUCLEAR POWERPLANT?
Nuclear energy originates from the splitting of uranium atoms – a
process called fission. This generates heat to produce steam, which is
used by a turbine generator to generate electricity. Because nuclear
power plants do not burn fuel, they do not produce greenhouse gas
emissions.

By reliably providing power 24 hours a day, nuclear energy is an

important part of the energy mix necessary to meet electricity demand.
And, with no carbon emissions, it will remain an important clean
energy resource for the future.
 HOW DOES NUCLEAR
POWERPLANT WORKS?
• First, uranium fuel is loaded up into the reactor—a giant concrete dome
that's reinforced in case it explodes. In the heart of the reactor (the
core), atoms split apart and release heat energy, producing neutrons
and splitting other atoms in a carefully controlled nuclear reaction.

• Control rods made of materials such as cadmium and boron can be

raised or lowered into the reactor to soak up neutrons and slow down
or speed up the chain reaction.

• Water is pumped through the reactor to collect the heat energy that the
chain reaction produces. It constantly flows around a closed loop linking
the reactor with a heat exchanger.
• Inside the heat exchanger, the water from the reactor gives up its
energy to cooler water flowing in another closed loop, turning it into
steam. Using two unconnected loops of water and the heat exchanger
helps to keep water contaminated with radioactivity safely contained in
one place and well away from most of the equipment in the plant.

• The steam from the heat exchanger is piped to a turbine. As the steam
blows past the turbine's vanes, they spin around at high speed.

• The spinning turbine is connected to an electricity generator and makes

that spin too.

• The generator produces electricity that flows out to the power grid—
and to our homes, shops, offices, and factories.
COMPONENTS OF NUCLEAR
POWERPLANT
• Containment is the structure that separates the reactor from the environment.
These are usually dome-shaped, made of high-density, steel-reinforced concrete.
Chernobyl did not have a containment to speak of.

• Cooling towers are needed by some plants to dump the excess heat that cannot
be converted to energy due to the laws of thermodynamics. These are the
hyperbolic icons of nuclear energy. They emit only clean water vapor.
• A surface condenser is a commonly used term for a water-cooled shell and tube
heat exchanger installed on the exhaust steam from a steam turbine in thermal
power stations. These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from
its gaseous to its liquid state at a pressure below atmospheric pressure.

• The reactor vessel body is the largest component and is designed to contain the
fuel assembly, coolant, and fittings to support coolant flow and support
structures. It is usually cylindrical in shape and is open at the top to allow the fuel
to be loaded.
• Control rods are used in nuclear reactors to control the fission rate
of uranium and plutonium. They are composed of chemical elements such
as boron, silver, indium and cadmium that are capable of absorbing
many neutrons without themselves fissioning.

• Turbine and Generator Once steam has been produced, it travels at

high pressures and speeds through one or more turbines. These get up to
extremely high speeds, causing the steam to loose energy, therefore, condensing
back to a cooler liquid water. The rotation of the turbines is used to spin an
electric generator, which produces electricity that is sent out the  electrical grid
• Steam generators are heat exchangers used to convert water into steam from
heat produced in a nuclear reactor core. They are used in pressurized water
reactors (PWR) between the primary and secondary coolant loops.

• A boiler feed water pump is a specific type of pump used to pump feed

water into a steam boiler. The water may be freshly supplied or
returning condensate produced as a result of the condensation of the steam
produced by the boiler. These pumps are normally high pressure units that take
suction from a condensate return system and can be of the centrifugal pump type
or positive displacement type.
• The coolant, as its name implies, is used to remove heat from the core and move
it to somewhere that it is useful. This keeps the fuel from overheating and
melting down, at the same time as transferring the heat to water to make steam.
Light water, heavy water, and various gases are the most common coolants for
nuclear reactors. Coolants may also serve as the moderator, as is the case in
many water-moderated reactors.

• A cooling system removes heat from the reactor core and transports it to another
area of the station, where the thermal energy can be harnessed to produce
electricity or to do other useful work. Typically the hot coolant is used as a heat
source for a boiler, and the pressurized steam from that drives one or more steam
turbine driven electrical generators.
• A transformer is a static electrical device that transfers electrical energy between
two or more circuits. Transformers are used for increasing or decreasing the
alternating voltages in electric power applications, and for coupling the stages of
signal processing circuits.

• The uranium fuel is manufactured into small fuel pellets and are packed into fuel
rods and surrounded by cladding to avoid leaking into the coolant. These fuel
rods are assembled into a fuel bundle, as seen below. There can be hundreds of
fuel bundles in a nuclear reactor, meaning there can be tens of thousands of fuel
rods
• A steam pipe(line) designed to carry pressurized steam from a boiler to the
working components, i.e. the steam engine(s) or turbine(s). Such piping usually
includes valves to control the routing of the steam, or to stop the flow altogether.
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