Power plant chemistry problems

It s not as central a field as it used to be, but there is still an awful lot of interesting work going on. There are also many interested young people in the field though perhaps not as many as used to be in the past. Environmental chemistry is more popular these days. However, there is no contradiction between nuclear chemistry and environmental chemistry. Also, I don t think that people s fear of nuclear power plants is justified, but the media paint a bad picture and connect it with the waste disposal problem. 

J. Rostrup-Nielsen pointed out [5] in 1994 that it is "questionable whether Ci chemistry can contribute significantly to solve the greenhouse problem created by CO2." For example the present world production of acetic acid is about 5 billion pounds per year. If one were to use CO2 + CH4 to produce acetic acid this would amount to the CO2 emission from only ONE 500 MWatt coal fired power plant- a small drop in a big bucket. ... 

Nuclear chemistry is very much in the news today. In addition TO APPLICATIONS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ATOMIC BOMBS, HYDROGEN BOMBS, AND NEUTRON BOMBS, EVEN THE PE.A.CEFUL USE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY HAS BECOME CONTROVERSIAL, IN PART BECAUSE OF SAFETY CONCERNS ABOUT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS AND ALSO BECAUSE OF PROBLEMS WITH DISPOSAL OF RADIOACTIVE WASTES. IN THIS CHAPTER WE WILL STUDY NUCLEAR REACTIONS, THE STABILITY OF THE ATOMIC NUCLEUS, RADIOACTIVITY, AND THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS. 

In many previous chapters, the discussion of questions regarding various environmental aspects of environmental chemistry in air, water, and soil compartments touched upon the problems of heavy metals. However, we should pay more attention to these pollutants, which are of crucial environmental concern in the Asian region. In this chapter, the emphasis will be given to heavy metal emissions from coal (including lignite) burning power plants, and to the specific aspects of environmental behavior of the most dangerous contaminants, like arsenic, mercury and lead. The problems of heavy metal site remediation will be considered in Chapter 16. 

Forecasts indicate that the United States will need an additional 355 billion watts of generating capacity in the next 20 years. Where will this energy come from A significant amount will be derived from coal-fired power plants. However, the major problems with these plants are air pollution and greenhouse gas (CO2) production (see "Chemistry in Focus Atmospheric Effects," on page 326). 

This branch of chemistry began with the discovery of natural radioactivity by Antoine Becquerel and grew as a result of subsequent investigations by Pierre and Marie Curie and many others. Nuclear chemistry is very much in the news today. In addition to applications in the manufacture of atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, and neutron bombs, even the peaceful use of nuclear energy has become controversial, in part because of safety concerns about nuclear power plants and also because of problems with radioactive waste disposal. In this chapter, we wiU study nuclear reactions, the stability of the atomic nucleus, radioactivity, and the effects of radiation on biological systems. 

Since this is a handbook of nuclear chemistry, a short comment will be made here on chemical tasks in a nuclear power plant. A detailed treatment of the chemical and radiochemical problems encountered in nuclear power stations (PWR and BWR) can be found in the literature (Lin 1996). One important task is the surveillance and control of the cooling circuits, in particular the primary cooling drcuiL... 

NOTE As a consequence of the different kinds of operational and management problems associated with raising steam in industrial boiler plants, it often requires a different mindset than that needed for a base-load utility power house, where personnel strive to maintain steady-state (but knife-edge) operating conditions. The differences between industrial plants and power generators is also reflected in the waterside chemistries and monitoring and control objectives of their respective boiler plant systems. 

As a consequence, good, safe, steam-sampling points are required, and automatic, real-time continuous analyzer systems for monitoring of steam and condensate quality are very useful. These requirements usually are not a problem in larger power and process HP boiler plants. Here, each facility tends to have a unique combination of operating conditions and waterside chemistry circumstances that necessitate the provision of a steady stream of reliable operational data, and this can be obtained realistically only from continuous, real-time analysis. 

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