Fossil fuel power plants steam turbine controls

When hydrogen is burned in a combustion chamber instead of a conventional boiler, high-pressure superheated steam can be generated and fed directly into a turbine. This could cut the capital cost of a power plant by one half. While hydrogen is burned, there is essentially no pollution. Expensive pollution control systems, which can be almost one third of the capital costs of conventional fossil fuel power plants are not required. This should also allow plants to be located closer to residential and commercial loads, reducing power transmission costs and line losses. 

When discussing steam turbines one needs to keep in mind that these are applicable for nuclear plants also. Refer to Fig. XII/3.0-1 to see that the turbine generator part in both cases is the same. In nuclear applications, naturally reliability and availability are of immense importance. Similarly, in fossil fuel power stations, if turbine safety is compromised, then the high-cost turbine cannot survive and would incur huge financial loss. There following points need to be considered for turbine control and safety systems ... 

A nuclear power plant generates electricity in a manner similar to a fossil fuel plant. The fundamental difference is the source of heat to create the steam that turns the turbine-generator. A fossil plant relies on the combustion of natural resources (coal, oil) to create steam. A nuclear reactor creates steam with the heat produced from a controlled chain reaction of nuclear fission (the splitting of atoms). 

The nuclear power plants that generate electrical power, for example, like those that burn fossil fuel, function by heating water into steam in order to turn the turbines that produce electricity. The fuel consists of uranium oxide (commonly known as yellowcake) processed into solid ceramic pellets and packaged into long vertical tubes that are inserted into reactors to produce a controlled fissile chain reaction. Either pressure or cold water is utilized to control reactor heat and the intensity of the reaction. 

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