Storage power plants

The production of electrical energy by storage power plants constitutes the dominant form of water use in the alpine region. Since the use of water by these types of power plants can have a significant impact on runoff characteristics and hence on a wide range of other parameters for rivers and streams, the issue is examined in more detail in the following section. 

As can be seen from Fig. 2 [ 18], storage power plants collect the water stored in a reservoir by means of inflows (within the catchment area) and diversions (from other catchment areas). Often this leaves only a minimal flow of water in the so-called residual flow reach below the withdrawal sites. In some cases, water from other hydrological basins can even be diverted over main watersheds. For example, more than 50 million cubic meters of water per year is diverted from the River Unteralpreuss (Rhine basin) to Lago Ritom (Po basin) [19]. 

When demand for energy is high, a storage power plant releases water to turbines in a powerhouse which in many cases is not situated on the dammed river. The water is led through pressure pipelines that do not follow the natural water course, as a result of which little or no water is run off in the residual flow reach below the reservoirs. By contrast, the runoff is higher than would naturally occur after the point of reflux. 

Fig. 2 Functional principle of a storage power plant and its impact on runoff characteristics (acc.

The quantity-related changes in mean monthly runoff are also evident in the example of the catchment area of the Rhone down to Porte du Scex, which is heavily utilized by storage power plants (Fig. 4a). The catchment covers a surface area of 5,244 km. The average altitude is 2,130 m ASL and the ice cover is 14.3%. Over the past 100 or so years, the useful capacity of reservoirs has been expanded to more than 1,200 million cubic meters by constructing around 50 dams (Fig. 4b). Here the quantum growth in hydroelectricity between 1950 and 1970, which is typical of the alpine region, can be clearly identified. Thanks to the capacity of reservoirs in the catchment area, around one-fifth of the annual runoff volume can be temporarily stored. 

A pump or compressor does work on a fluid in order to increase the fluid s pressure, elevation, velocity, or internal energy. A fluid engine or turbine extracts work from a fluid by lowering its pressure, elevation, velocity, or internal energy. These definitions are the reverse of each other, so some devices could serve as pumps or as fluid engines, depending on what way they were run. Tidal power plants and pumped storage power plants use the same device as a pump for part of the day and as a turbine for another part of the day. 

Figures P-62 and P-63 are an example of synchronous clutch application in an air storage power plant.

ASME Code Sec. Ill Nuclear Power Plant Components This section of the code includes vessels, storage tanks, and concrete containment vessels as well as other nonvesseJ items. 

This chapter shows that chemical process systems may fail and have serious consequences to the workers, public and the environment. Comparing with Chapter 6, chemical processes are similar to the processes in a nuclear power plant, hence, they may be analyzed similarly because both consist of tanks, pipes heat exchangers, and sources of heat. As an example of analysis, we analyze a storage tank rupture. 

According to a recent report [11], the nuclear power plant was the focus of the designers attention the standards used for the nuclear power plant were more stringent than those for the rest of the submarine. In the process industries utilities, storage areas and offplots often get less attention than the main units and are involved in disproportionately more incidents. 

Taking into account the possibility of highly directional blast effects, Eichler and Napadensky (1977) recommend the use of a safe and conservative value for TNT equivalency, namely, between 20% and 40%, for the determination of safe standoff distances between transportation routes and nuclear power plants. This value is based on energy it should be applied to the total amount of hydrocarbon in the largest single, pressurized storage tank being transported. 

Producers of electricity from nuclear power plants are assessed a fee of 0.1 cent per kilowatt-hour to pay for future storage of spent nuclear fuel at a federal facility. Receipts from this fee are allocated to the Nuclear Waste Trust Fund and arc appropriated by Congress to cover the costs of developing and constructing a permanent storage facility. 

Half-lives span a very wide range (Table 17.5). Consider strontium-90, for which the half-life is 28 a. This nuclide is present in nuclear fallout, the fine dust that settles from clouds of airborne particles after the explosion of a nuclear bomb, and may also be present in the accidental release of radioactive materials into the air. Because it is chemically very similar to calcium, strontium may accompany that element through the environment and become incorporated into bones once there, it continues to emit radiation for many years. About 10 half-lives (for strontium-90, 280 a) must pass before the activity of a sample has fallen to 1/1000 of its initial value. Iodine-131, which was released in the accidental fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, has a half-life of only 8.05 d, but it accumulates in the thyroid gland. Several cases of thyroid cancer have been linked to iodine-131 exposure from the accident. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24 ka (24000 years). Consequently, very long term storage facilities are required for plutonium waste, and land contaminated with plutonium cannot be inhabited again for thousands of years without expensive remediation efforts. 

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