Table of Contents
Can nuclear reactors use salt water?
Small and medium sized nuclear reactors are suitable for desalination, often with cogeneration of electricity using low-pressure steam from the turbine and hot seawater feed from the final cooling system.
Does nuclear power require fresh water?
Without sufficient water for the cooling process, nuclear power plants have high discharge temperatures at times, and are often forced to shut down or to reduce their output.
Why is sodium used to cool nuclear reactors?
The sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR) uses liquid metal (sodium) as a coolant instead of water that is typically used in U.S. commercial power plants. This allows for the coolant to operate at higher temperatures and lower pressures than current reactors—improving the efficiency and safety of the system.
How does a nuclear reactor cool the ocean?
During reactor operation, the steam being produced by the reactor “cools” the core and this heat is ultimately dumped into the ocean through the propulsion and generator condensers. When cooling down and while shutdown, there are fresh water heat exchangers which provide cooling, again rejecting the heat into seawater.
What type of reactor does a US Navy submarine have?
US Navy subs (and I presume all others except for a few experiments) used pressurized water reactors. They have 3 loops. The primary loop is pressurized water, and stays as a liquid as it circulates through the reactor, to a steam generator.
What happens to nuclear-powered submarines after they are decommissioned?
Decommissioning nuclear-powered submarines has become a major task for US and Russian navies. After defuelling, U.S. practice is to cut the reactor section from the vessel for disposal in shallow land burial as low-level waste (see the ship-submarine recycling program ).
Which countries use nuclear power in their submarines?
The Russian, US and British navies rely on steam turbine propulsion, while the French and Chinese ships use the turbine to generate electricity for propulsion (turbo-electric transmission). Most nuclear submarines have a single reactor, but Russian submarines and USS Triton had two.