Academic Integrity: tutoring, explanations, and feedback — we don’t complete graded work or submit on a student’s behalf.

A nuclear power plant generates 2000 MW of heat energy from nuclearreactions in

ID: 1757629 • Letter: A

Question

A nuclear power plant generates 2000 MW of heat energy from nuclearreactions in the reactor' score. This energy used to boil water andproduce high-pressure steam at 300oC. The steam spins aturbine, which produces 700 MW of electric power, then the steam iscondensed and the water is cooled to 30oC beforestarting the cycle again. a) What is the maximum possible thermal efficiency of thepower plant? b) What is the plant's actual efficiency? c) Cooling water from a river flows through the condenser (thelow-temperature heat exchanger) at the rate of 1.2 x 108L/hr (approximately 30 million gallons per hour). If the riverwater enters the condenser at 18oC, what is its exittemperature? a) What is the maximum possible thermal efficiency of thepower plant? b) What is the plant's actual efficiency? c) Cooling water from a river flows through the condenser (thelow-temperature heat exchanger) at the rate of 1.2 x 108L/hr (approximately 30 million gallons per hour). If the riverwater enters the condenser at 18oC, what is its exittemperature?

Explanation / Answer

We have:
         T = 300o C = 300+273 = 573 K          T ' = 30o C = 30+273 = 303 K a)Maximum possible thermal efficiency of the power plant = 1 -( T ' / T )                                                                                             = 0.471 b)plant's actual efficiency = Power produced / Powergenerated                                          = 700 MW / 2000 MW                                          = 0.35 c)Given rate =  1.2 x 108L/hr                        =  1.2 x 108 * 10 -3 m 3/ ( 60*60 s )                        = 3.33 * 10 4 m 3 / s                        = 33.3 m 3 / s      mass of the water flow in one second= 33300 kg      heat given to this mass in onesecond Q = ( 2000 - 700 ) M J                                                             = 1300 * 10 6 J we have:           Q = MC dt        => dt = Q /MC                = 9.32 =>exit temperature: T = t + dt                                    =18+9.32                                   = 27.32 o C
Hire Me For All Your Tutoring Needs
Integrity-first tutoring: clear explanations, guidance, and feedback.
Drop an Email at
drjack9650@gmail.com
Chat Now And Get Quote