Based on current events and researched gathered by IAEA: an exposed core, with unusable fail safes (to cool the reactors) as well as assuming staff are continually dosing the external housing with a coolent (i.e. salt water), you may believe it may take just a number of days to advert a nuclear catastrophe and cool down the reactor, right? Unfortunatley, the reality looks very grim. Without a proper circulation of coolent WITHIN the reactor, the build-up of hydrogen atoms and water vapor would expose the fuel-rods that would create am imminent partial-meltdown, assuming all fail safes are still non-functional/ Unlike chernoybl, technology has improved greatly, however, the heat generated from the fuel rods are capable to slice through the housing similar to that of melted butter exposing the core to the atmosphere. (i.e. Swiss cheese) Assuming the worse, an individual reactor in no way could generate the same nuclear fall-out as Chernoybl, however, with four reactors on the verge of a partial-meltdown and assuming these cores are exposed to the atmospehere in a partial-meltdown the catasrophe would be similar to that of chernoybl. The time frame you can expect a disaster of this magnitude to be adverted would be roughly * 2 - 4 weeks depending. However, you can expect the nuclear fall-out to be contained not anytime soon. If I were to make an educated guess with the clean-up process and containment, you would be looking at roughly 1 year. Worse case scenario would contaminate an area the size of the state of Maine, USA partiallu unusable for hundreds of thousands of years.* This worse case scenario would be approx half as destructive as Chernobyl.
According to the lists on the internet one pressurized water reactor can supply between 300 and 3000 Megawatts.
VC Summer Nuclear Power Station uses a Westinghouse "light water" reactor. "Light water" means that the nuclear reaction is moderated by regular H2O (as opposed to "heavy water" which uses a heavier Hydrogen isotope called "deuterium").
Pretty much all of them, under the right conditions.
The reactor itself does not make a lot of sound when operating. Nuclear fission is silent, but moving water in the core (in a pressurized water reactor) might be heard as it circulates. But it would not be easy to put your ear to the reactor vessel as radiation levels would be very high and the vessel would be very hot. Certainly the pumps that are running to circulate coolant will be audible.
The first year for the water-cooled KX80 was 1991.
There is some sort of confusion here. There are two types of water moderated/cooled reactors: boiling water and pressurized water.The boiling water reactor is at normal atmospheric pressure and the water in the reactor boils, producing steam directly.The pressurized water reactor is at elevated pressure to prevent the water from boiling. A heat exchanger/steam generator is used to produce steam indirectly.Other types of reactor (e.g. liquid metal, gas cooled, organic, aqueous homogeneous) also do not operate at pressures below atmospheric.
the boiling water reactor, pressurized water reactor, and the LMFB reactor
The coolant used in a pressurized water reactor is typically purified water. This water is pressurized to prevent it from boiling and is circulated through the reactor core to remove heat generated during the nuclear reaction.
Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs) are two types of reactors commonly used in the US for generating nuclear power. PWRs use pressurized water to transfer heat, while BWRs use boiling water to produce steam for electricity generation.
In a pressurized water-reactor, the primary cooling water circulates through the reactor core to remove heat generated by the nuclear fission process. This heated water then transfers its heat to a secondary water loop through a heat exchanger, where the secondary water is converted to steam to drive a turbine and generate electricity. The primary cooling water is then cooled down in a separate heat exchanger before being recirculated back into the reactor core.
In a pressurized water reactor, the primary cooling water is kept under high pressure to prevent it from boiling at normal operating temperatures. This pressurized water flows through the reactor core to transfer heat from the nuclear fuel to a secondary system, where the heat is used to generate steam for electricity production.
PWR stands for Pressurized Water Reactor, which uses pressurized water to transfer heat from the reactor core to the steam generators to produce electricity. BWR stands for Boiling Water Reactor, which directly produces steam in the reactor core to drive the turbines and generate electricity. Both are types of nuclear reactors used for power generation.
Boils in the core and is used to turn the turbine
The primary difference between a pressurized water reactor (PWR) and a boiling water reactor (BWR) is that in the BWR, water is actually boiled, and the steam is used to drive a steam turbine, while in the PWR, the primary coolant is not allowed to boil, but is circulated in a closed loop to boil water in a steam generator. The BWR circulates primary coolant through the steam turbine in a closed loop. The PWR contains the primary coolant in a loop that includes the steam generator, and not the steam turbine.
There is some sort of confusion here. There are two types of water moderated/cooled reactors: boiling water and pressurized water.The boiling water reactor is at normal atmospheric pressure and the water in the reactor boils, producing steam directly.The pressurized water reactor is at elevated pressure to prevent the water from boiling. A heat exchanger/steam generator is used to produce steam indirectly.Other types of reactor (e.g. liquid metal, gas cooled, organic, aqueous homogeneous) also do not operate at pressures below atmospheric.
A pressurized water reactor typically has between two to four steam generators. These large heat exchangers are vital components in the reactor's secondary cooling system, where heat from the primary reactor coolant is transferred to produce steam for generating electricity in a turbine generator.
This is done in order to limit corrosion of the internal reactor components