A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity. As of February 2, 2012, there were 439 nuclear power plants in operation.
Nuclear power plants are usually considered to be base load stations, since fuel is a small part of the cost of production.
Read more about Nuclear Power Plant: History, Systems, People in A Nuclear Power Plant, Economics, Safety, Controversy, Reprocessing, Accident Indemnification, Decommissioning, Historic Accidents, Flexibility of Nuclear Power Plants, Future Power Plants
Famous quotes containing the words nuclear power, nuclear, power and/or plant:
“The emotional security and political stability in this country entitle us to be a nuclear power.”
—Ronald, Sir Mason (b. 1930)
“Could it not be that just at the moment masculinity has brought us to the brink of nuclear destruction or ecological suicide, women are beginning to rise in response to the Mother’s call to save her planet and create instead the next stage of evolution? Can our revolution mean anything else than the reversion of social and economic control to Her representatives among Womankind, and the resumption of Her worship on the face of the Earth? Do we dare demand less?”
—Jane Alpert (b. 1947)
“For the most part, punishment makes men harder and colder; it concentrates; it sharpens the sense of estrangement; it strengthens the power of resistance.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The North American system only wants to consider the positive aspects of reality. Men and women are subjected from childhood to an inexorable process of adaptation; certain principles, contained in brief formulas are endlessly repeated by the press, the radio, the churches, and the schools, and by those kindly, sinister beings, the North American mothers and wives. A person imprisoned by these schemes is like a plant in a flowerpot too small for it: he cannot grow or mature.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)