3 ms·
There was a uranium enrichment plant in the south of France that was colocated with a nuclear power plant. It consumed 3/4th of its power output—2.7 gigawatts.
by perihelions 3y ago
There was a uranium enrichment plant in the south of France that was colocated with a nuclear power plant. It consumed 3/4th of its power output—2.7 gigawatts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricastin_Nuclear_Power_Plant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tricastin_Nuclear_Power_Plant
- "Three out of four reactors were used for powering the Eurodif Uranium enrichment factory until 2012, the year that Eurodif was closed."
- cesarb 3y agoIn the same vein, I heard in a recent The Tim Traveller video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SQVIZxUrDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SQVIZxUrDg) that a third of the power produced from the coal excavated from one mine was used to power the excavators from that mine.
- Tuna-Fish 3y agoThe difference being that in that case, about 1/3 of the power was spent on production, while in the case of the nuclear power plant, less than 1% was. (The uranium enrichment facility produced materials for a lot more than the plant that was powering it.)
- Retric 3y agoYour math seems off. If 75% of 4 nuclear reactors (so 3) was used then they would have needed to be using that uranium for 300+ nuclear reactors for that to represent below 1%. France has never gotten close to those numbers ~300 gigawatts. What seems more believable is if they where making highly enriched uranium for bombs not just reactor grade uranium or the number is larger than 1%.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- 666lumberjack 3y agoThat is a seriously impressive amount of power. In case anyone else is curious, it apparently provided fuel for about one hundred nuclear reactors, from that power. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Orano-to-start-dismantling-Georges-Besse-enrichmen https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Orano-to-start-d...
- asdfman123 3y agoApparently the old method of gas diffusion for uranium enrichment used a ton of power. They'd convert uranium to uranium fluoride gas, then repeatedly force it through membranes. The lighter isotopes would be more likely to permeate. I guess all that pumping pressure consumed a lot of power. Centrifuge technology uses far less.
- morkalork 3y agoAlso the sheer volume of material that has to be processed and reprocessed again when its in gas form rather than a solid or liquid.
- credit_guy 3y ago> Centrifuge technology uses far less Fun fact: uranium enrichment centrifuges don't play nice with earthquakes. They spin so fast that they have huge inertia. When there's an earthquake, the support of the machine moves with the Earth, and the spinning part stays in place, so the machine is ripped apart. It happened with an early Iranian covert nuclear project.
- Animats 3y agoThat's the plot of a Tom Clancy book. I can't find a reference to it happening in the real world.
- starkrights 3y agoEver heard of STUXNET?
- pfdietz 3y agoIt shows how much more energy hungry gaseous diffusion was compared to the current approach, which uses centrifuges.
- tomatocracy 3y agoInteresting. Colocation of gas-fired generation (usually with steam offtake as well as electricity) with refineries happens quite frequently as well.