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The Coal Yard Conversion Nuke

Climate Change’s Gathering Storm

It is beginning to look as if the world will ignore the gathering storm of climate change until it’s too late.  The numbers are simple and stark: Man produces about 37 billion tons of fossil fuel CO2 each year (only fossil fuel CO2 contributes to Global Warming); nature removes about 20 billion tons each year leaving an accumulating surplus of about 17 billion tons  (or 2 additional parts per million) in our air each year.

Planet Earth needs only trace amounts of CO2.  Zero CO2 would produce a zero degree Fahrenheit world.  Until about 100 years ago, atmospheric CO2 was always about 300 ppm.  It is now at 387, and most climate experts say that all hell will break loose before we reach 450 – only 63 more ppm – or about 30 years.   

Electricity Generation is the Big Culprit

The biggest producers of fossil fuel CO2 are the world’s 138,000 fossil fuel-burning electricity generating units.  They produce 11 billion tons or 70% of Global Warming’s annual 17 billion ton CO2 accumulation.

Converting existing power plants from fossil-burning to nuclear is our only quick and practical option since they are already built, paid for, running, and connected to cities.

The IPCC has identified the 5,000 biggest emitters of CO2.  It’s unavoidable that, at the very least, these coal-burning power plants be converted to zero-CO2 nuclear as soon as possible.

The Conversion Technology

Coal-burning power plants typically use 1,000°F steam, far hotter than the 550°F steam temperature obtainable from conventional nuclear reactors.

A newer alternative nuclear technology, the mass-produceable, TRISO nuclear fueled, 1,700°F pebble bed reactor is hot enough to convert any coal-burning power plant to nuclear. 

TRISO nuclear fuels can also be used to power new, very low-cost nuclear plants built from mass-produced parts originally designed and manufactured for coal power plants.

TRISO nuclear fuels can withstand temperatures as high as 3,600°F, but TRISO heated reactors typically “cruise” at 1,700°F and a natural physics phenomenon called “Doppler-broadening” will keep the reactors from ever getting hotter than about 2,700°F, leaving an almost 1,000°F safety margin.

Conversion from coal boilers to nuclear boilers is a straightforward project:

1. Install Reactor.  The reactor is a 20 feet in diameter, 80-foot high silo filled with TRISO nuclear pebbles.  Reactors would be installed next to power plants in underground silos located in the plant's now-unneeded coal storage yard. 

2. Install Hot Water Heater.  The reactor's silo would also contain the reactor-heated hot water heater.

3. Install Steam Generator.  The heater's hot water would be piped from the reactor silo in the coal yard to the power plant's boiler area and connected to a new water-heated steam generator that duplicates the boiler's steam. 

4. Re-connect Generator Turbine.  The plant's feedwater pump and generator turbine would then be disconnected from the coal-burning boiler and re-connected to the new steam generator.  That's it Simplified drawing. 

Only nuclear has sufficient clean power to get us out of this mess.  Whatever the problems of nuclear, they are nothing compared to climate change.

© 2008 James P Holm

 

 

 

 

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                                                                                       Steam Generator                        Hot Water Heater       Reactor

This sketch shows what I hope PBMR, Ltd., would accept as an alternate application of their reactor. 

The heavy black line (also lifted away slightly) shows the now unused coal portion of the power plant.

Conversion is that simple.  Illustrating the Coal Yard Nuke idea, the above is an anatomically correct simplified coal burning power station schematic diagram from Wikipedia.  Original image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_fuel_power_plant   GNU Free Documentation License 

 

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