ML20202C282
| ML20202C282 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Issue date: | 10/31/1997 |
| From: | Bessette D NRC OFFICE OF NUCLEAR REGULATORY RESEARCH (RES) |
| To: | Racquel Powell NRC OFFICE OF INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT (IRM) |
| Shared Package | |
| ML20202C192 | List: |
| References | |
| FOIA-97-416 NUDOCS 9712030301 | |
| Download: ML20202C282 (2) | |
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UNITED STATES e
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION g
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October 31, 1997 MEMORANDUM TO: Russell A. Powell, Chief Freedom of information/ Local Public Document Room Branch Office of Information Resources Management THRU:
Farouk Eltawila, Chief Reactor and Plant Systems Branch %
Division of Systems Technology Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research FROM:
David E. Bessette
/cd Dsedi Reactor and Plant Systems Branch Division of Systems Technology Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
SUBJECT:
FOlA-97-0416 The following is in response to your inquiry that we received on October 29,1997 concerning the relationship between horsepower and electrical power generation. Please note the following: horsepower and watts are two arbitrary units that measure the same physical quantit,t, namely rate of energy. - The units are watt (or horsepower) = mass times length-squared divided by time-cubed or ha-m' k
3 s
where kg is mass in kilograms m is length in meters s is time in seconds The conversion between the units of horsepower and watts is
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1 horsepower (hp) = 745.7 watts (W)
Therefore 100 MW x 10' W/MW x 1 hp/745.7 W = 134,102 hp 9712030301 971125 PDR FOIA I
OBILLAR97-416 PDR
- v 1
2 Note that any power generating system has an efficiency of less than 100% according to the second law of thermodynamics. The overall efficiency of a power plant is defined as the ratio of the net energy dativered by the generator to the electric grid divided by the rate of energy generation at the heat source r) = wdqs where r)is the thermal efficiency w is the energy delivered to the grid qs is the energy produced at the source in a nuclear power plant the energy produced at the source is by the fissioning of the nucleus of uranium and plutonium. In a fossil plant it is the chemical reaction from the burning of carbon from coal, oil, or gas. The definition of effidency is the same in all cases. Typical nuclear plants are approximately 33% efficient. Therefore a plant that generated 100 MW of thermal energy would deliver to the grid 33 MW of electrical energy.
100 MWt x 0.33 = 33 MWe where MWt is the thermal energy MWe is the electric energy A 1000 MWt plant would deliver to the grid 330 MWe. A plant that delivered 1300 MWe (1.3 GWe) to the grid would have a thermal power of 3940 MWt. This is representative of the largest plants in operation.
I hope this answers your question satisfactorily.
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