If nuclear power plants boil water to turn a turbine to make energy then why do they make more energy than a coal power plant that does the same?
In: 28
A coal plant can easily be just as powerful as nuclear plant or more and if you are looking for most powerful then world top 6 largest power stations are actually all hydroelectric dams. Source of energy does not dictate how large a plant you can build.
The question of nuclear vs coal should instead be why does one use so little fuel and the other so much for same amount of energy. The energy densities are drastically different because they are driven by very different reactions. One is working on nuclear binding energy, the other is working off of chemical reactions powered by electron binding energy which is much less. To extend the comparison a hydro dam works off of gravitational potential energy which is by far the weakest and look how much mass that has to pass through to make same amount of energy.
Latest Answers