Food for thought: Nuclear power

A lot of people don't know much about nuclear power, myself included. But now that I live only miles away from the Perry Nuclear Power plant, I thought I would include some information as food for thought.

I didn't take this picture, but this gives you a pretty clear idea of what everyone within probably a 50 mile radius of the plant has a view of. At first...let's say I found it...unappealing. But, truthfully, it is an incredible and impressive structure that helps provide power for a massive amount of people. That's nothing to sneeze at! It appears at first glance that the reactor is emitting smoke or some other kind of pollutant, but that's actually not the case at all. That giant cloud is 100% steam--the byproduct of the Boiling Water Reactor (BWR).

In a typical commercial boiling water reactor (1) the reactor core creates heat, (2) a steam-water mixture is produced when very pure water (reactor coolant) moves upward through the core absorbing heat, (3) the steam-water mixture leaves the top of the core and enters the two stages of moisture separation where water droplets are removed before the steam is allowed to enter the steam line, (4) the steam line directs the steam to the main turbine causing it to turn the turbine generator, which produces electricity. The unused steam is exhausted to the condenser where it is condensed into water. The resulting water is pumped out of the condenser with a series of pumps, reheated, and pumped back to the reactor vessel. The reactor's core contains fuel assemblies which are cooled by water, which is force-circulated by electrically powered pumps. Emergency cooling water is supplied by other pumps which can be powered by onsite diesel generators. Other safety systems, such as the containment cooling system, also need electric power.

The Perry Nuclear Power plant reactor is a General Electric BWR-6 boiling water reactor design, with a Mark III containment design. The original core power level of 3,579 megawatts thermal was increased to 3,758 megawatts thermal in 2000, making Perry one of the largest BWRs in the United States.

Built at a cost of $6 billion, Perry-1 is one of the most expensive power plants ever constructed.

So, now you know that if you come to visit us in Painesville (or pretty much anywhere in Northeast Ohio), you'll likely get a glimpse of these enormous reactors--and you'll actually know what they do!

Sources: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/at_a_glance/reactors/perry.html & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Nuclear_Generating_Station