Nuclear power consumption

Trends in commercial fuel, eg, fossd fuel, hydroelectric power, nuclear power, production and consumption in the United States and in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, are shown in Tables 2 and 3. These trends indicate (6,13) (/) a significant resurgence in the production and use of coal throughout the U.S. economy (2) a continued decline in the domestic U.S. production of cmde oil and natural gas lea ding to increased imports of these hydrocarbons (qv) and (J) a continued trend of energy conservation, expressed in terms of energy consumed per... 

Production and consumption of commercially available fossil fuel, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power in the United States for the year 1992 is shown... 

The demand for uranium ia the commercial sector is primarily determined by the consumption and inventory requirements of nuclear power reactors. In March 1997, there were 433 nuclear power plants operating worldwide with a combined capacity of about 345 GWe (net gigawatts electric)... 

Hydroelectric sources of power are being exploited to the full in both the US and UK, and the contribution of nuclear power is subject both to the supply of uranium ore and to environmental problems. At present, nuclear generation only contributes around 7 per cent of the total UK energy consumption. 

Genchi et al. (2000) showed that heat dissipation from traffic, air conditioning, and other human activities, during a warm day in Tokyo, adds up to a heat production of 140 W m-2 in Tokyo with a resulting air temperature increase of about 3 °C. A similar estimation for Stockholm results in 70 W m-2. The Swedish energy consumption, mainly based on fossil fuel and nuclear power, corresponds to a national heat generation of 0.16 W m-2 though the country is sparsely populated (20 person km-2). 

Attainment of the goal of balanced plutonium production and consumption and minimum inventory will require a number of decades. Paradoxically, achievement of the goal will be most important in the event that nuclear power is phased out, leaving large and increasingly accessible plutonium inventories in many countries if no provision for their destruction has been made. While the global abandonment of nuclear power is extremely... 

The enrichment capacity of Eurodif is 10,800,(XX) UTS (units of separation work). This corresponds to the fuel consumption of 90 nuclear reactors of the 900 MW class. In view of all the programs for building nuclear power plants hastily set up by many countries shortly after the 1973 oil crisis, it was clear that another uranium enrichment plant of similar size would have to be built immediately after Eurodif was completed. This was the Coredif project. 

Production and consumption of commercially available fossil fuel, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power in the United States for the year 1992 is shown in Table 2 (12). Coal production is most significant followed by natural gas and petroleum. Electricity generation and utilization patterns are shown in Table 4. Coal is overwhelmingly the most significant energy source used to generate electricity. 

When discussing global energy consumption, the unit of energy most often used is the quad (Q). One Q equals 1 quadrillion Btu (1015 Btu), 1.055 exajoules (EJ), 172 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), or 0.293 petawatt hour (pWh = 1012 kWh) of electricity. One Q is also equivalent to the yearly energy produced by over two dozen nuclear power plants, the energy content of 10,000 supertankers of oil, 400,000 railcars of coal, or 28 billion cubic meters of natural gas. 

The size of the exploitable proven uranium reserves is a function of the market value of uranium (because as it rises the mining of lower concentration ores became profitable). At 125/kg it is estimated between 4 and 5 million tons. As the present yearly demand for uranium is about 77,000 tons, this reserve is sufficient for about 65 years (R/P ratio = 65). Other estimates suggest that the known reserves will last about 80 to 100 years. On the other hand, if more nuclear power plants are built, the consumption will also rise and therefore the P/R ratio could drop. 

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