Re:Unplanned Exposure During Diving in the Spent Nuclear Fue...
by cycomanic on Monday September 30, 2024 @03:42PM
(#41701228)
Why when I ask you about efficiency are you linking to an article about capacity (and the capacity factor)?
Apart from the fact that those two are two completely different measures, nuclear power plants also don't have capacity factors of 95% (80-85% is more typical).
> Lost track of this radioactive piece in the pool, found it by accident, zap!
> Neutrons make hardware radioactive.
> Many on Hacker News fantasize about fusion (not fission) reactors. These fusion (not fission) reactors will be an intense source of fast neutrons. All the hardware in a fusion (not fission) reactor will become radioactive. Not to mention the gamma rays.
> If you have to deal with radioactive materials, why not just use fission? After 70 years of working with fission reactors, we know how to build and operate them at 95%+ efficiency. Fission can provide all the power we will need in our lifetimes.
What do you mean by 95% efficiency? Fission reactors are heat engines, their efficiency is much lower typical reactors are 35% while modern designs can reach up to 45%. That's the thermal efficiency, if we consider the energy stored inside the fission material it's much lower still.