1. What does this new project provide?

2. What is the effect of the integrated system?

A recent study, financed by the European Commission, concluded that there is a very real need for new technologies which can improve the efficiency of high temperature cogeneration (> 600° C). This new project provides for the demonstration of an innovative plant compris-

71

Unit 9. Fossil Fuels

ing a conventional "base" gas turbine (6 MW) with a newer Oxipar gas turbine (1 MW).

The Oxipar turbine is fed with compressed air from the base gas tur­bine, steam from the boiler and natural gas. It exhausts a combustible gas into a power turbine driving a generator, and then into the burner of a boiler. The effect of the integrated system is to raise the electrical efficiency from 18% to nearly 21%, for the same 80% global thermal efficiency. Expected costs per kW installed are about 20% lower than those of equivalent conventional systems.

JUST FOR FUN • Read and retell the text.

SCIENTISTS SMILE Exothermic' or Endothermic²

A thermodynamics professor gave his graduate students a take-home exam. It had one question: "Is hell (ад) exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with a proof. Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law or some variant. One student, how­ever, wrote the following:

First, we postulate³ that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole⁴ of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and at what rate are souls leav­ing? I think that we can safely assume (предположить) that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for souls entering hell, lets look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not the member of their religion, you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to hell. With birth and death rates (уровни) as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially⁵. Now, we look at the rate (скорость) of change in volume in hell. Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in hell to stay the same, the ratio (соотношение) of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant-.

72 Section I. Power Engineering

# 1 — So, if hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter hell, then the temperature and pressure in hell will increase until all hell breaks loose⁶, meaning that hell is exothermic.

#2 — Of course, if hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until hell freezes over (замерзнет), meaning that hell is endothermic.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given me by Therese Ban­yan during freshman year, and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded with her, then #2 cannot be true. Therefore, hell is exothermic.

1 — экзотермический, теплопоглощающий; 2 — эндотермический, теплоот-дающий; 3 — допускаем; 4 — грамм-молекула; 5 — экспоненциально, по­казательно; 6 — выйдет из-под контроля

^{^^т unit ю ^^ш}

_{NUCLEAR POWER}

PARTI

• Read the following texts below and define the main difference in the contents of the texts.

Nuclear Station Performance Fuels Industry Renaissance

Fig. 10.

Oconee Nuclear Plant

The US is producing not only more electricity than ever, but also more favorable consideration as a viable part of the nation's energy mix. Consider that, for the first time in decade, political leaders are proposing nuclear power as an important, long-term energy solution. And utility companies that canceled nuclear projects in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Ireland accident are studying the feasibility of resurrecting these projects, while other power producers are investi­gating new nuclear plants orders. Even the mainstream media — known

favorable consideration благоприят­ное мнение

in the wake of на поводу у кого-либо, под влиянием чего-либо

accident авария

to resurrect воскрешать, возрождать

harsh treatment жесткое отношение

renaissance Ренессанс, возрождение

impetus стимул, толчок

performance improvements улучшение рабочих характеристик

74 Section I. Power Engineering

for its harsh treatment of the industry - has begun talking in terms of a nuclear industry "renaissance".

The near-term impetus for this turn-around stems from recent events - regional power shortages, increased natural gas costs, and premium mar­ket prices for electricity. However, the fact that nuclear power is in the position to be favorably considered is a result of the substantial perfor­mance improvements achieved at US plants during the past decade.

Most important, these performance gains came with equally im­pressive improvements in safety indicators. For instance, the number of unusual events reported to the US NRC dropped from 151 in 1990 to just 18 in 2002. The challenge for individual nuclear stations is to con­tinue this momentum by solidifying competitive gains already achieved and squeezing further improvements from each unit.

US nuclear plants have done an excellent job of maintaining and improving plant design margins and operating reliability. Extensive monitoring and surveillance testing of plant systems, structures and components such as containment building, reactor vessel, reactor cool­ing system pressure boundary, steam generators, pressurizer, piping, pump casings, and valve bodies are performed yearly to verify the plant is maintained in excellent condition. Few if any nuclear plant compo­nents will require replacement specifically to achieve extended opera­tion for an additional 20 years.