n this problem, we're going get a rough estimate the amount ofuranium fuel it would take if the US recieved all its electricalpower from nuclear power plants.
The size of a power plant in normally given as the about ofelectrical power it can produce when running a full capacity. Thiselectrical power produced can be very different than the mechanicalor thermal power that was required to produce this electricity. Forexample, power plant might have a \\"thermal efficiency\\" of 25\%and so require 100 MWt (mega-watts of thermal power) to produce25MWe (megawatts of electrical power). The efficiency will varyfrom plant to plant but an approximate range is from around 2\5% to35\%.
Lets assume we have a 103 MWe electrical power plantthat recieves its thermal energy from pressured water nuclearreactor (PWR) and has overall thermal efficiency of 30\%.
You may want to use the following table of atomic masses:
| Table of masses |
|---|
| 141Ba | 140.9144 u | | 144Ba | 143.9229 u | | 139Te | 138.9347 u |
| 141Cs | 140.9196 u | | 90Kr | 89.91952 u | | 91Kr | 90.92344 u |
| 92Kr | 91.92615 u | | 94Zr | 93.90632 u | | 93Rb | 92.92157 u |
| 235U | 235.0439 u | | p | 1.00728 u | | n | 1.00867 u |
A key point here is that not all of the uranium fuel in thereactor is 235U. Most of it is actually a differentisotope, 238U, which does not fission in standardreactors. Lets assume the fuel is \\"enriched\\" so that 2.8\% of thefuel is actually 235U by mass. What is the total mass offuel is used in one year?
Usetotal =
Assume that all the fuel used in one year must actually beremoved as high level radioactive waste. What volume of waste mustbe removed from the reactor annually and placed in long termstorage?
Vtotal =
Take the electrical production of the US to be around2.5X1012kWh/year. If all of the electrical power wasgenerated by nuclear power plants similar to the one describedabove, what would the amount of waste that would need to be storedannually?
Vnational =
If this waste were formed into a cube, what would be the lengthof the cube's sides?
L =
