Why do nuclear power plants exist?

The existence of nuclear power plants mainly uses nuclear energy to generate electricity.

This kind of energy has the advantages of cleanness and high efficiency. Nuclear energy is the energy released when the nuclear structure changes, and it is the energy released by nuclear reaction.

However, although nuclear power generation is a clean energy with little impact on the environment, unlike fossil fuels, it does not cause global temperature rise, acid rain frequency decline, destroy the atmospheric ozone layer and threaten human survival and safety, but it also faces the problem of radioactive nuclear waste disposal. Therefore, in order to solve the energy crisis and environmental pollution problems, many industrialized countries choose to develop nuclear power.

In addition, the coastal areas can reduce the construction of cooling towers because of the convenience of water intake, and the restricted development areas within 5 kilometers around nuclear power plants can also reduce the number of immigrants. So nuclear power plants are mainly built in coastal areas.

Principle of nuclear power plant

Nuclear power plants use energy released by nuclear fission reaction and energy conversion to generate electricity. In PWR, the self-sustaining chain reaction of nuclear fission of nuclear fuel nucleus produces a lot of heat. Coolant (also known as heat carrier) brings the heat in the reactor into the steam generator and transfers it to its working medium-water.

Then the main circulating pump sends the coolant back to the reactor for recycling, thus forming a cycle called the first cycle. This process is also an energy conversion process in which nuclear fission energy is converted into heat energy.

The working medium on the secondary side outside the U-tube of the steam generator is heated and evaporated to form steam, which enters the steam turbine to expand and do work, and the heat energy released by the enthalpy drop of the steam is converted into mechanical energy for the rotation of the steam turbine rotor. This process is called the energy conversion process from thermal energy to mechanical energy.

The steam that does work condenses into condensed water in the condenser and returns to the steam generator to form another circulation loop, which is called the second loop. This process is called the energy conversion process from thermal energy to mechanical energy. The rotating rotor of the steam turbine directly drives the rotor of the generator to rotate, so that the generator generates electric energy, which is an energy conversion process from mechanical energy to electric energy.

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