Nuclear Power Generation

[faslan]

How Much Uranium need for run a 100MW nuclear power Plant (working 24 Hrs day )for a year

swansont-total uranium in Kgs Edited February 24, 2014 by faslan

[swansont]

The answer depends a whole lot on context.

 

The absolute minimum you can calculate knowing that you get ~200 MeV per fission, and calculating how many atoms that represents for the energy equal to 100MW * 1 year.

 

In reality you'll need a lot more than this, because you have to maintain a critical reactor, so you don't really deplete all that much. The amount of fuel depends on the design of the reactor. One question that must be addressed is are you talking about total Uranium, or the amount of U-235? The enrichment will matter.

[Enthalpy]

Present pressurized and boiling water reactors are about 30% efficient, so if the100MW are electricity, don't forget a factor-of-three in the fission energy.

 

Most thermal neutrons uranium reactors produce and consume immediately enough plutonium to reduce the uranium consumption by 1/3.

 

Breeders would convert and consume also ²³⁸U, not just ²³⁵U, so their total uranium consumption is lower.

 

The spent fuel can be reprocessed (which is done zero or one time presently), extracting the unused ²³⁵U and optionally the produced Pu to make new fuel of them. Depending on how you account the fuel, the reactor's consumption would depend on more factors than just the initial and final concentration in ²³⁵U.