The basic process used in today’s nuclear power plants is the fission of heavy element nuclei. In this process, a carefully-controlled fission reaction generates heat to produce steam to power conventional turbines for electricity generation. An alternative nuclear reaction, fusion, is the same process by which the sun’s radiation is generated. Its mechanism has been under investigation for a long time, but is not likely to reach commercial feasibility for many years to come. This chapter will therefore concentrate on the power derived from fission, which is a commercially available means of generating power that has been developed and employed for many years in several countries. In this type of nuclear ...
Get Principles of Sustainable Energy Systems, Third Edition, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
