How much thermal energy does the plant generate in one year?
October 28th, 2009 | by Michael |
sterlin_marlin40 asked:
A typical nuclear power plant generates electricity at the rate of 1060 MW. The efficiency of transforming thermal energy into electrical energy is 1/3 and the plant runs at full capacity for 76% of the year. (Assume that this nuclear power plant is down about 24% of the time for maintenance and refueling.)
A typical nuclear power plant generates electricity at the rate of 1060 MW. The efficiency of transforming thermal energy into electrical energy is 1/3 and the plant runs at full capacity for 76% of the year. (Assume that this nuclear power plant is down about 24% of the time for maintenance and refueling.)
(a) How much thermal energy does the plant generate in one year?
(b) What mass of uranium is transformed into energy in one year?
MITCH
One Response to “How much thermal energy does the plant generate in one year?”
By poseiden_is_back on Oct 29, 2009 | Reply
If q=1060MW
Watts are Joules per second, you want joules (or watt-hours perhaps)
find how many seconds there are in a year, multiply this by 1/3), then multiply this by .76
This gives you the seconds of production. Multiply this by q to get watts*seconds which is Joules.
I’m not sure about the energy transfer from uranium though. E=mc^2 might help