Lecture

Nuclear Powerplant: Operation and Components

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture covers the operation and components of a nuclear powerplant, including the primary and secondary circuits, control rods, reactor core, heat transfer mechanisms, and thermal power generation. It also discusses the refrigeration cycle in a refrigerator, the use of refrigerants, and the environmental concerns related to CFC gases. Furthermore, it explores different aspects of two-phase flow and heat transfer, such as natural convection, film condensation, surface tension, wetting, evaporation, pool boiling, and flow patterns in pipes.

This video is available exclusively on Mediaspace for a restricted audience. Please log in to MediaSpace to access it if you have the necessary permissions.

Watch on Mediaspace

Official source

Related concepts (14)

Heat transfer

Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction, thermal convection, thermal radiation, and transfer of energy by phase changes. Engineers also consider the transfer of mass of differing chemical species (mass transfer in the form of advection), either cold or hot, to achieve heat transfer.

Heat pump and refrigeration cycle

Thermodynamic heat pump cycles or refrigeration cycles are the conceptual and mathematical models for heat pump, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. A heat pump is a mechanical system that allows for the transmission of heat from one location (the "source") at a lower temperature to another location (the "sink" or "heat sink") at a higher temperature. Thus a heat pump may be thought of as a "heater" if the objective is to warm the heat sink (as when warming the inside of a home on a cold day), or a "refrigerator" or “cooler” if the objective is to cool the heat source (as in the normal operation of a freezer).

Nuclear power plant

A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. , the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 412 nuclear power reactors in operation in 31 countries around the world, and 57 nuclear power reactors under construction.

Refrigeration

Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is ejected to a place of higher temperature). Refrigeration is an artificial, or human-made, cooling method. Refrigeration refers to the process by which energy, in the form of heat, is removed from a low-temperature medium and transferred to a high-temperature medium.

Convection (heat transfer)

Convection (or convective heat transfer) is the transfer of heat from one place to another due to the movement of fluid. Although often discussed as a distinct method of heat transfer, convective heat transfer involves the combined processes of conduction (heat diffusion) and advection (heat transfer by bulk fluid flow). Convection is usually the dominant form of heat transfer in liquids and gases. Note that this definition of convection is only applicable in Heat transfer and thermodynamic contexts.

Related lectures (64)

Thermodynamic Heat Pump Cycles MOOC: Thermodynamics I

Explores thermodynamic heat pump cycles, practical considerations, refrigerants, and real vs. ideal cycles.

Stirling Cycle

Explores the Stirling cycle, a thermodynamic process with continuous combustion and versatile fuel options, suitable for refrigeration and heat pump applications.

Thermal Transfer and Efficiency in Cycles

Discusses thermal transfer, efficiency in cycles, Carnot cycle, heat pumps, Stirling engine, and ideal gases.

Thermodynamics: Thermal Machines and Carnot Cycle

Discusses thermal machines, focusing on the Carnot cycle and its efficiency in thermodynamics.

Thermodynamics: Otto and Diesel Engine Cycles