At a Glance

In our previous blog, we have discussed the introduction of a nuclear power plant. In today’s blog, we will discuss nuclear power plant, the advantages of nuclear power plant, and the disadvantages of nuclear power plant.

advantages of nuclear power plant

There are many advantages of the nuclear power plant over other power plants; let’s discuss them one by one.

1. Uranium (U-235) is mostly used as a fuel for nuclear power plants. The amount of fuel required is quite small, so there is no transportation and storage problem.
2. The demand for coal, oil, and gas is reduced due to radioactive material as a fuel, and the requirement for this fuel is very less.
3. These plats require less size of erecting area than the other plants of the same size, for ex. For example, a 2000MW nuclear power plant requires 80 acres, whereas the coal fire (steam) power plant of the same size requires about 250 acres.
4. The nuclear power plant can be located near the load center because the fuel requirement is less, so transportation costs are reduced, reducing primary distribution costs.
5. In addition to producing a large amount of power, the nuclear power plant can produce valuable fissile material extracted when the fuel has to be renewed.
6. These plants are more economical for large capacity, i.e., 100MVA and more.
7. The nuclear power plant has very flexible output control. I.e., the output can be adjusted to zero to the upper limit. And this limit is set by the capacity of the heat removal system to prevent the overheating of the pile.
8. These plants ensure the continuous supply of electricity as the availability of nuclear fuel is large worldwide.
9. The nuclear power plant is very neat and clean and is hospital quiet. In contrast, other plants like steam power plants require thousands of tons of coal per day, and handling this coal creates mud, sludge, and gumbo.
10.  The operating cost is quite low and once the installation is completed. The loading of the power plant will have no effect on the generation cost. Therefore a nuclear power plant is always operated as a base load plant. Nuclear power plants are usually not operated at a load factor less than 0.8 (load factor expresses the amount of energy utilized in a specific period).

disadvantages of nuclear power plants

There are many advantages of nuclear power, but every coin has two sides, so nuclear power plants also have many serious and harmful drawbacks.

1. The nuclear power plant’s initial cost is very high compared to other power plants.
2. While erecting the nuclear power plant, experienced technicians are needed.
3. A byproduct of a fission reaction is generally radioactive and may cause dangerous radioactive pollution.
4. Nuclear power plants are not well suited for varying loads since the reactor does not respond to load fluctuations efficiently.
5. The fuel used is expensive and difficult to recover because the cost of uranium is much higher than the cost of other fuels used in a power plant, such as coal or oil, etc.
6. Maintenance charges are high owing to the lack of standardization; the Salary bill of the maintenance staff is also high as specially trained personals are required to handle the plant. Also, operating a nuclear power plant sometimes becomes difficult and also needs experienced personals.
7. The disposal of radioactive products is a big problem. They have either to be disposed of off in a deep trench or in a sea away from seashore because these radioactive materials are harmful to us and can cause serious damage to the human system.
8.  The cooling water requirements of the nuclear power plant are very heavy (more than twice the water required for the same sized coal-fired steam power plant). Hence cooling towers required for nuclear power plants are larger and costlier than conventional steam power plants.

Those are the advantages and disadvantages of a nuclear power plant. In our upcoming blog, we will discuss the site selection of nuclear power plants in detail.