Nuclear Power Plant Or Solar Power Plant

This book will shed light on some hot topics related to nuclear power plants starting from uranium ore processing to fabrication through enrichment and finally to nuclear fuel at nuclear reactors. This book will hopefully encourage researchers and scientists to look further into the advantages of nuclear power plants in the production of cheap electricity with low fuel cost.

Both solar energy and nuclear energy face significant economic challenges. Sustainable energy costs have traditionally been greater than any of those associated with the growth of fossil fuel power generation, although the costs of renewable energy technologies (especially photovoltaic) have dropped. Furthermore, capital costs remain a big challenge in the nuclear generation. In many nations, the cost of building small nuclear power plants is quite large due to time, technology, and environmental and safety challenges for consumers. Such problems might not be as big for state-owned corporations or controlled industries for which utilities have quick access to cheap resources, and this partially explains why the interest for nuclear reactors in Asia is far greater than in the United States or Europe. Learning could help decrease costs for both types of technologies, but the track record for learning-by-doing in the nuclear sector is not good.

This book is a collection of essays focused on the Gordian knot of our time, the closely coupled problems of energy poverty for billions of humans, and global warming for all humans. The central thesis of the book in that nuclear power is not only the only solution, it is a highly desirable solution, cheaper, safer, less intrusive on nature than all the alternatives.

Solar Power Generation is a concise, up-to-date, and readable guide providing an introduction to the leading renewable power generation technology. It includes detailed descriptions of solar photovoltaic and solar thermal generation systems, and demystifies the relevant solar energy technology functions in practice while also exploring economic and environmental risk factors. Engineers, managers, policymakers, and those involved in planning and delivering energy resources will find this reference a valuable guide to help establish a reliable power supply to address social and economic objectives. Focuses on the evolution and developments in solar energy generation Evaluates the economic and environmental viability of the systems with concise diagrams and accessible explanations Demystifies the relevant solar energy technology functions in practice Explores economic and environmental risk factors

The second edition of this book includes the most up-to-date details on the advantages of Nuclear Air-Brayton Power Plant Cycles for advanced reactors. It demonstrates significant advantages for typical sodium cooled reactors and describes how these advantages will grow as higher temperature systems (molten salts) are developed. It also describes how a Nuclear Air-Brayton system can be integrated with significant renewable (solar and wind) energy systems to build a low carbon grid. Starting with basic principles of thermodynamics as applied to power plant systems, it moves on to describe several types of Nuclear Air-Brayton systems that can be employed to meet different requirements. It provides estimates of component sizes and performance criteria for Small Modular Reactors (SMR). This book has been revised to include updated tables and significant new results that have become available for intercooled systems in the time since the previous edition published. In this edition also, the steam tables have been updated and Chapters 9 and 10 have been rewritten to keep up with the most up-to- date technology and current research.

Reviews the political and social context for nuclear power generation, the nuclear fuel cycles and their implications for the environment.

Sustainable Nuclear Power provides non-nuclear engineers, scientists and energy planners with the necessary information to understand and utilize the major advances in the field. The book demonstrates that nuclear fission technology has the abundance and attainability to provide centuries of safe power with minimal greenhouse gas generation. It also addresses the safety and disposal issues that have plagued the development of the nuclear power industry and scared planners and policy makers as well as the general public for more than two decades. In addition, the authors provide a Companion website, http://books.elsevier.com/companions, which gives access to government reports and case studies *No need for a background in nuclear science! This book guides engineers, scientists and energy professionals through a concise and easy-to-understand overview of key safety and sustainability issues affecting their work. *Details the very latest information about today's safest and most energy-efficient reactor designs and reprocessing procedures. *Brings to light the fears and hesitation of using nuclear energy and explains that technologies and procedures for safe production and processing are available today.

Desalination in Nuclear Power Plants presents the latest research on a variety of nuclear desalination techniques for different nuclear reactor systems; it includes also several aspects regarding competitiveness, sustainability, safety, and licensing process. Authors Alonso, del Valle, and Ramirez explore the possibilities of the cogeneration of water and electricity using a nuclear reactor. This book consolidates the latest research to provide readers with a clear understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of the thermal, membrane, and hybrid desalination processes, along with a comprehensive methodology to guide the reader on how to perform levelized cost analyses for water and electricity. The conditions for the coupling of nuclear reactors and desalination plants are presented, and techniques to maximize water and energy production and to reduce their corresponding costs are provided. Mathematical modeling techniques for different components of the power plant are also included based on mass and energy state equations, as well as different steam currents alternatives for coupling along with a proposed method for their evaluation. Explains nuclear cogeneration in the context of multiobjective optimized methods and their application in the design of a cogeneration system of water and electricity Explores principles to optimize the cogeneration process from an economic and thermal perspective (exergoeconomic analysis) Includes competitiveness, sustainability, safety, and licensing of the nuclear desalination system

What set the United States on the path to developing commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s, and what led to the seeming demise of that industry in the late 1970s? Why, in spite of the depletion of fossil fuels and the obvious dangers of global warming, has the United States moved so slowly toward adopting alternatives? In Energy and Empire, George A. Gonzalez presents a clear and concise argument demonstrating that economic elites tied their advocacy of the nuclear energy option to post-1945 American foreign policy goals. At the same time, these elites opposed government support for other forms of energy, such as solar, that cannot be dominated by one nation. While researchers have blamed safety concerns and other factors as helping to arrest the expansion of domestic nuclear power plant construction, Gonzalez points to an entirely different set of motivations stemming from the loss of America’s domination/control of the enrichment of nuclear fuel. Once foreign countries could enrich their own fuel, civilian nuclear power ceased to be a lever the United States could use to economically/politically dominate other nations. Instead, it became a major concern relating to nuclear weapons proliferation.