Re:Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
by philipkglass on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @08:42PM
(#36609382)
I don't think that any nuclear reactor has achieved 60% thermal-to-electricity efficiency. In a water cooled reactor the hot side starts with cooler steam than a combustion-fired plant can generate so it's hard to reach really high efficiency. Reactors cooled with helium, molten salts, or liquid metal could theoretically do better but I don't think that any actually-built power reactors have reached 60%.
The brand new EPR achieves only 37% thermal efficiency and that is considered a good number for a power reactor:
Re:Heat Pumps – The Well-Tempered Future of A/Cs
by ori_prior on Wednesday July 05, 2023 @09:03PM
(#36609553)
No, you are right, 60% is a theoretical maximum achievable maybe with supercritical reactor coolant. The actual maximum for existing reactors is somewhere just below 40%.
The brand new EPR achieves only 37% thermal efficiency and that is considered a good number for a power reactor:
https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fu...