Seeing How PLTN Works, Power Plants Without Carbon Emissions

YOGYAKARTA Nuclear Power Plants or commonly abbreviated as PLTN are thermal power plants that utilize one or several nuclear reactors as their heat sources. The way PLTN works is to use high-pressure steam to rotate turbines. Next, the turbine spin is converted into electrical energy.

If you pay attention, the working principle of PLTN is almost the same as the Steam Power Plant (PLTU). What distinguishes is the heat source used, where PLTN uses uranium.

For more details, let's see how PLTN works in the following review.

Quoted from the Foro Nuclear page, the way PLTN works is similar to PLTU, where heat energy is obtained through burning fossil fuels. However, in nuclear reactors, this energy comes from the nuclear fission reaction of uranium atoms from nuclear fuels.

The released heat energy is used to heat water at high pressures and temperatures until it turns into vapor. Next, the vapor rotates the turbine that is connected to the generator that converts the mechanical energy of the turbine's spin into electrical energy.

Before being used as a heat energy producer in nuclear reactors, uranium underwent a series of complex processing processes. Starting from mining, uranium then passes through the purification and enrichment stages to increase its fission uranium-235 isotopic concentration.

This stage produces enriched uranium, which is then formed into a small ceramic pellet, each with a diameter of about one centimeter.

After that, ceramic pellets are arranged and inserted into special metal tubes that are resistant to corrosion and high temperatures, usually made of zirconium alloys. These tubes are sealed very neatly to avoid leakage of radioactive material.

In a typical reactor configuration, more than 200 tubes are combined to form a fuel assembled one. The amount of fuel assembled in the reactor core varies depending on the desired design and power capacity.

Large reactors for commercial power plants can have hundreds of tubes. While small research reactors or reactors may require only a few homemade ones.

These tubes are placed in reactor vessels containing high pressure water. In the PLTN system, water functions as a neutron moderator and as a cooler.

As a neutron moderator, water prevents excess heat that can damage fuel or other reactor components.

In order to control the rate of the fission reaction, the nuclear reactor is equipped with a control rod system. These rods, made of neutron absorbing material such as borons or cadmiums, can be inserted or pulled from the reactor core. When inserted, the control rods absorb the reactor's power. In contrast, the withdrawal of the control rod can lift the reaction rate and reactor power.

The heat energy produced from this fission process converts water into high-pressure vapor. In the design of the boiling water reactor (BWR), this vapor is immediately used to rotate the generator turbine.

In the hot-pressure water reactor (PWR), heat from the primary system is channeled to the secondary system through a vapor generator, where water in the secondary system is converted into vapor to drive the turbine.

The turbine round then drives the electric generator, producing electrical energy through the electromagnetic induction principle. Overall, the way PLTN works can produce electrical energy without carbon emissions, making nuclear power plant an option in climate change mitigation efforts.

That's information about how PLTN works. Get news updates of other options only on VOI.ID.