Nuclear Power Plant

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)

    “The problems of the world, AIDS, cancer, nuclear war, pollution, are, finally, no more solvable than the problem of a tree which has borne fruit: the apples are overripe and they are falling—what can be done?... Nothing can be done, and nothing needs to be done. Something is being done—the organism is preparing to rest.”
    —David Mamet (b. 1947)

    “If we can learn ... to look at the ways in which various groups appropriate and use the mass-produced art of our culture ... we may well begin to understand that although the ideological power of contemporary cultural forms is enormous, indeed sometimes even frightening, that power is not yet all-pervasive, totally vigilant, or complete.”
    —Janice A. Radway (b. 1949)

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    —Charles Dickens (1812–1870)