38 ms·
300° C. Nuclear reactors are pretty cold, for thermal generation. As I understand it, this is because the cooling system has to remain liquid, and you can only
by VintageCool 5y ago
300° C. Nuclear reactors are pretty cold, for thermal generation. As I understand it, this is because the cooling system has to remain liquid, and you can only pressurize+heat water so much before it turns to steam (or becomes prohibitively expensive to contain).
- makomk 4y agoYup. Most of the UK's reactors are an unusual gas-cooled design which does produce steam temperatures similar to coal power plants, but that's pretty much unique to the UK and also a technological dead end - there were apparently enough engineering headaches that they didn't end up a clear win over standard pressurised water reactors and no-one's built any based on that design since.