|
I was a bit
surprised to read the attached article in the IET Power Engineer, because I
have been a member of the UK Institute
of Electrical Engineers for many years and this kind of very technical nuclear
article was usually in the UK BNES journal. Maybe nuclear is getting more relevant.
The article is about improving PWR efficiency by using hollow fuel pellets and having
the cooling water interspersed with nanofluids of oxides and metals. I wondered
if either of these two efficiency mods could be applied to CANDU. However hollow
fuel elements would seem very difficult to make; would they not require an
inner Zircalloy tube ? As for the oxides and metals in the cooling water, would
this not require fuel enrichment and cause more contamination. A final pet peeve
of mine is the measurement of “efficiency” of a nuclear reactor as though it
was a coal fired plant. Efficiency
of different kinds of nuclear reactor may be compared in terms of the full
cycle of mining and extracting the uranium, transportation, processing, enrichment
( if PWR) and even the eventual recovery of the energy in the used fuel. Neil Craik |
Attachment:
Cool water and hollow rods.doc
Description: MS-Word document