A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity. As of February 2, 2012, there were 439 nuclear power plants in operation.
Nuclear power plants are usually considered to be base load stations, since fuel is a small part of the cost of production.
Read more about Nuclear Power Plant: History, Systems, People in A Nuclear Power Plant, Economics, Safety, Controversy, Reprocessing, Accident Indemnification, Decommissioning, Historic Accidents, Flexibility of Nuclear Power Plants, Future Power Plants
Famous quotes containing the words nuclear power, nuclear, power and/or plant:
“Language is as real, as tangible, in our lives as streets, pipelines, telephone switchboards, microwaves, radioactivity, cloning laboratories, nuclear power stations.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“The problems of the world, AIDS, cancer, nuclear war, pollution, are, finally, no more solvable than the problem of a tree which has borne fruit: the apples are overripe and they are falling—what can be done?... Nothing can be done, and nothing needs to be done. Something is being done—the organism is preparing to rest.”
—David Mamet (b. 1947)
“A seashell should be the crest of England, not only because it represents a power built on the waves, but also the hard finish of the men. The Englishman is finished like a cowry or a murex.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Evolution was in a strange mood when that creation came along.... It makes one wonder just where the plant world leaves off and the animal world begins.”
—John Colton (1886–1946)