China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
High-Reliability Organisations
Published in David O'Hare, Introduction to Safety Science, 2022
The studies carried out on board two US nuclear-powered aircraft carriers provide a rare insight into air operations (‘Flight Ops') on board an aircraft carrier.6 The US Navy has ten ships of the Nimitz class, each one a floating city of approximately 3,000 sailors under the command of the ship's captain, as well as a Carrier Air Wing consisting of a similar number of aircrew and support personnel and another small group known as ‘Flag' under the command of an admiral. One of the researchers described the carrier as ‘A city of 6,000 men with an airport on its roof'.7 Each group has its own command structure, specialised roles and tasks, and lines of communication but all three groups must cooperate and coordinate to manage extremely complex aircraft and electronic warfare systems under extreme conditions of weather, time pressure and operational stress. The technologies involved are undoubtedly complex in themselves, and there is considerable organisational complexity in the interrelationships amongst and between members of the three groups just mentioned. A seemingly simple instruction from an admiral, such as to have F-14 aircraft standing by ready for a 5-minute launch the next day, involves an intricate set of logistical and administrative operations.
Hybrid Energy Systems for Water Industry
Published in Yatish T. Shah, Hybrid Energy Systems, 2021
Small- and medium-sized nuclear reactors are suitable for desalination, often with cogeneration of electricity using low-pressure steam from the turbine and hot seawater feed from the final cooling system. The main opportunities for nuclear plants have been identified as 80–100,000 m3/d and 200–500,000 m3/d ranges. The U.S. Navy nuclear powered aircraft carriers reportedly desalinate 1,500 m3/d each for use onboard. A 2006 IAEA report based on country case studies showed that costs would be in the range 50–94 c/m3 for RO, 60–96 c/m3 for MED, and $1.18–1.48/m3 for MSF processes, with marked economies of scale. These figures are consistent with later reports. Nuclear power was very competitive at 2006 gas and oil prices. A French study for Tunisia compared four nuclear power options with CC gas turbine and found that nuclear desalination costs were about half those of the gas plant for MED technology and about one-third less for RO. With all energy sources, desalination costs with RO were lower than MED costs. At the April 2010 Global Water Summit in Paris, the prospect of desalination plants being co-located with NPPs was supported by leading international water experts. As seawater desalination technologies are rapidly evolving and more countries are opting for dual-purpose-integrated power plants (i.e., cogeneration), the need for advanced technologies suitable for coupling to NPPs and leading to more efficient and economic nuclear desalination systems is obvious [1,142,143].
Modular Systems for Energy Usage for Desalination and Wastewater Treatment
Published in Yatish T. Shah, Modular Systems for Energy Usage Management, 2020
Small and medium-sized nuclear reactors are suitable for desalination, often with cogeneration of electricity using low-pressure steam from the turbine and hot seawater feed from the final cooling system. The main opportunities for nuclear plants have been identified as 80–100,000 m³/day and 200–500,000 m³/day ranges. The U.S. Navy nuclear powered aircraft carriers reportedly desalinate 1,500 m3/day each for use onboard. A 2006 IAEA report based on country case studies showed that costs would be in the range 50–94 c/m3 for RO, 60–96 c/m3 for MED, and $1.18–1.48/m3 for MSF processes, with marked economies of scale. These figures are consistent with later reports. Nuclear power was very competitive at 2006 gas and oil prices. A French study for Tunisia compared four nuclear power options with CC gas turbine and found that nuclear desalination costs were about half those of the gas plant for MED technology and about one-third less for RO. With all energy sources, desalination costs with RO were lower than MED costs. At the April 2010 Global Water Summit in Paris, the prospect of desalination plants being colocated with NPPs was supported by leading international water experts. As seawater desalination technologies are rapidly evolving and more countries are opting for dual-purpose integrated power plants (i.e., cogeneration), the need for advanced technologies suitable for coupling to NPPs and leading to more efficient and economic nuclear desalination systems is obvious [127, 128, 135–147].
Foreword: Special issue on Salt-Cooled Reactors
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2020
Charles Forsberg, Farzad Rahnema
Molten-salt reactors (MSRs) with fuel dissolved in the salt were originally developed in the 1950s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program with the goal of a jet-powered aircraft that had unlimited range. MSRs were chosen because they efficiently coupled to jet engines by delivering heat near 800°C to the jet engine. While the nuclear-powered aircraft did not prove practical, after 60 years of advances in gas turbines for power generation we are seeing renewed interest in coupling salt reactors to gas turbine cycles1 at temperatures between 600°C and 700°C. Equally important, advances in steam cycles now enable full utilization of high-temperature heat delivered to the power cycle by most proposed salt-cooled reactors. In this context, salt reactors deliver heat at a higher average temperature than any other class of reactors (Table I). Like other liquid-cooled reactors, the temperature drop across the reactor core is small. This characteristic has the potential to improve the economics of all salt reactor systems relative to other reactor systems.
Criticality Properties and Control Rod Worth of the Critical Experiment Device for MSR Research
Published in Nuclear Technology, 2018
Yafen Liu, Rui Yan, Yang Zou, Xuzhong Kang, Ruimin Ji, Bo Zhou, Shihe Yu
The molten salt reactor (MSR) was first investigated as a means of providing a compact high-temperature power plant for nuclear-powered aircraft.1 In 1954, the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE), constructed at Oak Ridge National Library (ORNL), demonstrated the nuclear feasibility of operating a molten salt–fueled reactor at high temperature.2 Immediately after the successful operation of ARE, the Aircraft Reactor Test (ART) was started at ORNL, but this project was terminated in 1957 (Refs. 1 and 3). After realizing the high promise of the MSR type for achieving low electric power generating costs in a central power plant, the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) was on its way for design, construction, and operation.1,4
Safe, clean, proliferation resistant and cost-effective Thorium-based Molten Salt Reactors for sustainable development
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 2022
The idea of a liquid, chemical device instead of the traditional fuel rods in a mechanical device is attributable to the Nobel laureates Eugene Wigner and Harold Urey. It was Wigner who recommended the ‘molten fluoride’ as the starting-point (Weinberg 1997). Ed Bettis and Ray Briant of ORNL proposed the MSR during the post-World War II nuclear-powered aircraft (MacPherson 1985) project, the Aircraft Reactor Experiment (ARE) (Weinberg 1997), which was stopped in March 1961 soon after John F. Kennedy took office (Rosenthal 2009).