A) Heard in a documentary on Russian nuclear icebreakers:
300 g of Uranium equivalent to 350 Tons of diesel over 24 hours.
Real power = 75000hp.
From this we can do some checks and estimates history to have orders of magnitude in mind:
10 kWh per L of fuel oil
11.9 MWh per T of fuel oil
24h thermal power = 11.9 * 350/24 = 173.5 MW
Mechanical power at 35% efficiency = 173.5 * 0.35 = 60.7 MW = 82 hp.
However, the power is given for 75 hp, i.e. 000 kW, hence the actual efficiency = 55 / 500 = 55.5%
Ratio of the masses consumed = 1.2 million. In other words: 1 gram instead of 1.2 Tonne. It's huge".
We can clearly see the interest of uranium in the propulsion of large maritime vessels!
Thermal energy supplied by 1kg of Uranium = 11.9 * 350 / 000 = 0.3 kwh = 13 GWh
Thermal energy supplied by 1kg of fuel oil = 11.9 kWh
And obviously, we find the ratio to approximations near 14 GWh / 11.9 kWh = 1.2 million
B) Corrolary: we can estimate the uranium consumption of an electric nuclear reactor.
Mechanical power of a reactor = 1 GW
Yield = 30%
Thermal power of a reactor = 3.3 GW
Uranium consumption in kg / h for a 1GW reactor at full power = 3.3 / 14 = 236 grams.
The load factor is around 80%, we assume the constant efficiency, so we get:
Daily uranium consumption = 236 * 0.8 * 24 = 4.5 kg
Annual consumption of a 1GW reactor = 4.5 * 365 = 1.6 Tons of Uranium.
In reality in France we have reactors of 0.9GW, 1.3 GW and 1.5 GW so make the corrections: 1.44 T / year, 2.08 T / year and 2.4 T / year
Let us say, given the uncertainty on the load factor and the efficiency: 1.5, 2 and 2.5 T / year. Reactor according to the type.
The interested reader can add up the annual French consumption of uranium for the 58 reactors in operation: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_ ... _en_France
(although at the moment, given the aging of the power plants, we are probably no longer at 80% annual load factor).
Please note that this is not the ultimate waste after treatment.
Read also:
Energy-Nuclear-all-your-questions t2172.html
equivalence-production-of-solar-wind power-and-nuclear-t5501.html
ps: thank you for not (too) trolling on the nuclear waste debate.
