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:
“In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)