Power History refers to the power of a nuclear reactor over an extended period of time. Power history is important for calculations and operations that involve decay heat and fission product poisons and to avoid the iodine pit during reactor shutdowns.
For example, a nuclear reactor that has operated at 100% power for 100 hours and then has dropped down to 20% power for 5 hours will have a different amount of decay heat and fission product poisons than the same nuclear reactor operating at 20% power for 105 hours. This is because the second reactor has a different power history.
Famous quotes containing the words power and/or history:
“Those lumbering horses in the steady plough,
On the bare field—I wonder why, just now,
They seemed terrible, so wild and strange,
Like magic power on the stony grange.”
—Edwin Muir (1887–1959)
“Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were only the history of pinheads.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)