Search results for "Power Plant"
showing 10 items of 85 documents
Selecting a small run-of-river hydropower plan by the analytic hierarchy process (AHP): A case study of Miño-Sil river basin, Spain
2015
Hydroelectric power is obtained by harnessing the potential energy of a mass of water flowing along a river bed to convert it first into mechanical and then into electrical energy. The system is therefore both clean and autonomous and has a high potential for development. A small hydropower plant has an installed power capacity of below 10 MW and is considered run-of-river when it diverts part of a river flow to generate its electricity. The use of multicriteria techniques in environmental decision making, including selecting between various alternatives, is important when it involves complex decisions in a number of disciplinary fields. The most widely used of these techniques is the analy…
Maturation of critical technologies for the DEMO balance of plant systems
2022
The Pre-Concept Design (PCD) of the Balance of Plant (BoP) systems of the EU-DEMO power plant is described in this paper for both breeding blanket (BB) concepts under assessment, namely the Water Cooled Lithium Lead (WCLL) BB and the Helium Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) BB. Moreover, the results of a preliminary evaluation of a number of BoP variants are discussed. This paper outlines the steps of the BoP design development, highlighting the project objectives and the strategy for their achievement under the very challenging requirements which include, among others, the intermittent nature of the DEMO plasma heat source. The main achievements during the PCD Phase will be reported together with t…
Real time monitoring of water level and temperature in storage fuel pools through optical fibre sensors
2017
AbstractWe present an innovative architecture of a Rayleigh-based optical fibre sensor for the monitoring of water level and temperature inside storage nuclear fuel pools. This sensor, able to withstand the harsh constraints encountered under accidental conditions such as those pointed-out during the Fukushima-Daiichi event (temperature up to 100 °C and radiation dose level up to ~20 kGy), exploits the Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry technique to remotely monitor a radiation resistant silica-based optical fibre i.e. its sensing probe. We validate the efficiency and the robustness of water level measurements, which are extrapolated from the temperature profile along the fibre length, …
Attività di interconfronto tra codici di trasporto atmosferico per la preparazione e la risposta alle emergenze nucleari
2019
In questo lavoro vengono presentati e confrontati i risultati ottenuti con tre differenti codici (FLEXPART, CALPUFF e ldX) per il trasporto atmosferico di inquinanti radioattivi. I codici vengono confrontati su una singola simulazione di un possibile rilascio incidentale alla stazione frontaliera di Gösgen (CH), in condizioni meteorologiche sfavorevoli per il territorio italiano. In this work we present and compare the results obtained iwth three different codes (FLEXPART, CALPUFF and ldX) for the atmospheric dispersion of radioactive pollutants. The codes are compared on a single simulation of a possible incident release in the Gösgen (CH) nuclear power plant with weather conditions that a…
Atmospheric dry deposition processes of particles on urban and suburban surfaces: Modelling and validation works
2019
Abstract Dry deposition process is one of the important pathways for the removal of particles from atmosphere. It is the result of a combination of different environmental and physical factors as atmospheric conditions, particle properties, characteristics of the canopy. For this latter factor, urban canopy represents unevenly combinations of different types of surface elements that increases the complexity of deposition process phenomena. Therefore, particle dry deposition on urban surfaces is not easy to configure and, although empirical or semi-empirical models in literature have been developed to address this aspect, there is not standardized and commonly accepted criteria, especially f…
Nuclear Power, No Thanks?
2012
The greatest misunderstanding related to nuclear energy, which is continuously exploited by its opponents, is the nature of radioactivity. Pierre and Marie Curie carried in the pockets of their laboratory coats test tubes full of highly radioactive substances, unaware that gamma radiation could be harmful at high doses. In contrast, antinuclear propaganda has been so effective that most people are convinced that any radioactive “leakage” is deadly or that radioactive waste has to be buried at a depth of kilometers to avoid harmful effects—in fact, a few meters of soil is enough to absorb even the most intense gamma radiation—or that cancer risk grows exponentially due to nuclear power plant…
Agronomic performance and energetic potential of two Brassica oilseed species in Sicily, Italy
2018
Industrial crops for energy purposes are object of increasing interest worldwide and play an important role as a source of renewable energy. The aims of this study were to evaluate: i) the agronomic performance of Brassica napus L. var. oleifera D.C. and Brassica carinata A. Braun in a semi-arid environment; ii) to evaluate the economic viability of a pilot combined heat and power (CHP) plant operating on pure vegetable oil (PVO). The research was carried out in Sicily (Italy). The main biometric and yield parameters of the two species were determined. Chemical-physical characterizations were carried out on PVO for each species using specific protocols. The cogeneration of renewable energy …
Economic and Environmental Assessment of Biomass Power Plants in Southern Italy
2022
In 2019, Europe adopted the New Green Deal as a strategic plan to become a competitive, resource-efficient, and driven economy by reducing its gas emissions and carbon footprint. Due the COVID-19 pandemic, this strategic plan was recently updated to expedite the green transition of European industries. Therefore, the present paper deals with the problem of deciding an appropriate size for a biomass plant that directly produces electric energy by means of two different conversion processes: combustion and gasification. After an initial estimation of the energy potential in western Sicily, GIS data of biomass growth were used to identify the appropriate size for the power plants under investi…
Distribution of biomass and site location of combustion and gasification power plants in western Sicily
2012
The substitution of conventional fossil fuels with biomass for energy production results both in the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions and in the replacement of non-renewable energy sources. The use of biomass for energy production responds to the growing pressure of government policies towards the achievement of better environmental sustainability of power generation processes. This is particularly true for the agricultural areas of Sicily, where the realization of new economic dynamics can lead to development of a local economic system. However, at present, generating energy from biomass is rather expensive due to both technological limits related to low conversion efficiencies, and…
Depth profiling of Pu, 241Am and 137Cs in soils from southern Belarus measured by ICP-MS and alpha- and gamma-spectrometry
2003
The depth distribution of plutonium, americium, and Cs-137 originating front the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) was investigated in several soil profiles in the vicinity from Belarus. The vertical migration of transuranic elements in soils typical of the 30 km relocation area around Chernobyl NPP was studied using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), alpha spectrometry, and gamma spectrometry. Transuranic concentrations in upper soil layers ranged from 6 x 10(-12) g g(-1) to 6 x 10(-10) g g(-1) for plutonium and from 1.8 x 10(-13) g g(-1) to 1.6 x 10(-11) g g(-1) for americium. These concentrations correspond to specific activities of Pu239+240 of…