Current status and future prospects for nuclear power in the UK and Europe
报告人:
J. D. Jackson
Prof. The University of Manchester, UK
报告时间:
2009-05-12 14:00
报告地点:
热能系馆报告厅
主办单位:
热能系
简介:
Current status and future prospects for nuclear power in the UK and Europe Prof. J. D. Jackson University of Manchester, UK Summary The UK's first commercial nuclear power reactor began operating in 1956. Production of electricity from nuclear power grew steadily from then on and by 1997 about 26% of the nation's electricity was generated by that means. Over the years, a number of its older nuclear power stations have been taken out of service. A further six stations are currently planned for closure by 2015. As a consequence of this it has been forecast that an energy shortage could develop in the UK. In response to such concerns the UK Government recently published a document entitled, ‘Meeting the Energy Challenge’. It followed some public consultation on the future of nuclear power in the UK. The document set out the Government’s view that nuclear power should be part of a low-carbon energy mix designed to serve the country’s needs. It stated that companies should have the option of building new nuclear power stations, and that the British Government should take some facilitative actions to enable this to happen. Nuclear power is seen as an important part of its energy policy, alongside saving energy, increasing the production of renewable energy, and investing in new ‘clean’ technologies. The UK Government considers nuclear power to be a mature technology within a widely established global industry and holds the view that the decision whether to bring forward proposals for new nuclear build is a matter for the private sector and that there is no longer a case for financial support by the Government. Recently there has been a very important new development in the UK. This is the purchase of Britain’s major nuclear power generating company, British Energy (BE), by Electricity de France. EDF has initiated plans to build four European Pressurised Water Reactors, (EPR’s), in the UK the first one being targeted for operation in 2017. These will be based on the design of an EPR currently under construction at Flamanville in France. The EPR design is an evolutionary development of the most recent French and German Pressurised Water Reactors. About the Speaker Prof. Jackson is from the University of Manchester in the UK. He is an expert on fluid flow, heat transfer applied to nuclear reactors. His work on the effects of non-uniformity of fluid properties on convective heat transfer to gases liquids and also fluids at supercritical pressure was followed by studies of mixed convection, transient turbulent flow, radiative heat mission and of problems involving boiling, condensation and evaporation. In addition he was responsible for an extensive programme of research on heat transfer to liquid sodium and the characteristics and scattering properties of argon/sodium aerosol mixtures. In recent times Prof. Jackson has concentrated his attention on thermal aspects of very advanced nuclear reactor systems (Generation IV reactors). He currently sits on the Advisory Panel of the EU funded project on High Performance Light Water Reactors and has just joined the newly initiated IAEA Coordinated Research Programme (CRP) on Advanced Water-cooled Reactors.
