A project report on

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of Certified Automation Engineer Course
by S K Singh C Panchal Shankar under the supervision of

Mrs. Y Katre

Teknocrats Academy of Automation and Control Technology, Thane

19 September 2011 14 November 2011

Acknowledgements
We thank all our friends and colleagues for their help in making of this project. We also thank Mrs. Yogita Katre, who taught us very diligently the concepts of electric and electronic automation, and PLC programming. We are grateful to the whole team of TAACT who provided us with great environment and facilities to study and work in. 18 November 2011.

1. Introduction
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity. Nuclear power plants are usually considered to be base load stations, which are best suited to constant power output. Electricity was generated for the first time ever by a nuclear reactor on December 20, 1951 at the EBR-I experimental station near Arco, Idaho in the United States. On June 27, 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant to generate electricity for a power grid started operations at Obninsk, USSR. The world's first commercial scale power station, Calder Hall in England opened in October 17, 1956. 2. System The conversion to electrical energy takes place indirectly, as in conventional thermal power plants: The heat is produced by fission in a nuclear reactor (in light water reactor). Directly or indirectly water vapour-steam is produced. The pressurized steam is then usually fed to a multi-stage steam turbine. Steam turbines in Western nuclear power plants are among the largest steam turbines ever. After the steam turbine has expanded and partially condensed the steam, the remaining vapour is condensed in a condenser. The condenser is a heat exchanger which is connected to secondary side such as a river or a cooling tower. The water then pumped back into the nuclear reactor and the cycle begins again. The water-steam cycle corresponds to the Rankine cycle.
A. Nuclear reactors

A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The most common use of nuclear reactors is for the generation of electric energy and for the propulsion of ships. The nuclear reactor is the heart of the plant. In its central part, the reactor core's heat is generated by controlled nuclear fission. With this heat, a coolant is heated as it is pumped through the reactor and thereby removes the energy from the reactor. Heat from nuclear fission is used to raise steam, which runs through turbines, which in turn powers either ship's propellers or electrical generators. Since nuclear fission creates radioactivity, the reactor core is surrounded by a protective shield. This containment absorbs radiation and prevents radioactive material from being released into the environment. In addition, many reactors are equipped with a dome of concrete to protect the reactor against external impacts. In nuclear power plants, different types of reactors, nuclear fuels, and cooling circuits and moderators are sometimes used.

B. Steam turbine

The object of the steam turbine is to convert the heat contained in steam into mechanical energy. The engine house with the steam turbine is usually structurally separated from the main reactor building. It is aligned to prevent debris from the destruction of a turbine in operation from flying towards the reactor. In the case of a pressurized water reactor, the steam turbine hermetically separated from the nuclear system. To detect a leak in the steam generator and thus the passage of radioactive water at an early stage is the outlet steam of the steam generator mounted an activity meter. In contrast, boiling water reactors and the steam turbine with radioactive water applied and therefore part of the control area of the nuclear power plant.
C. Generator

The generator converts kinetic energy supplied by the turbine into electrical energy. Lowpole AC synchronous generators of high rated power are used.
D. Cooling system

A cooling system removes heat from the reactor core and transports it to another area of the plant, where the thermal energy can be harnessed to produce electricity or to do other useful work. Typically the hot coolant is used as a heat source for a boiler, and the pressurized steam from that boiler powers one or more steam turbine driven electrical generators. The reactor coolant pump in the case of the DWR has the task to circulate the coolant between the reactor and steam generators. In western nuclear power plants, the nuclear reactor is fed with four redundant pumps (loops), each separated by Redundancy structurally accommodated in the reactor building. The design of the pump corresponds to a Centrifugal with a one-piece forged body. The throughput is up to 10,000 l / s at a pressure of 175 bars and a maximum allowable temperature of 350 C13. There is an increase in pressure through the main coolant pump when DWR indicates pressure loss in the reactor, steam generators and piping system. Even after the failure of the main coolant pumps (RESA is the result of) the circulation and thus the heat dissipation is by so-called Natural circulation guaranteed. In the case of boiling water reactor, the reactor pressure vessel force circulation pumps to avoid core wings attached to their interpretation is approximately equal to those in a PWR. You are responsible for the safety of the plant is not absolutely necessary. Besides this main coolant pump of a nuclear power plant has usually still have several emergency supplies at different pressure levels, the case of disturbances maintain the cooling of the reactor core.
E. Safety valves

The pressure in the reactor pressure vessel at an incident, to limit upward, two independent safety valves are available. The pressure relief prevents bursting of pipes or reactor. The valves are in their capacity designed so that they can derive all of the supplied flow rates with little increase in pressure. In the case of the BWR, the steam is directed into the condensate chamber and condenses there. The chambers are on heat exchanger connected to the intermediate cooling circuit.

Should not close the safety valves, are very close again safety shut any, should, if necessary, prevent coolant accident. The non-closing of a safety valve led to a serious accident at Three Mile Island.
F. Feed water pump

The water level in the steam generator and nuclear reactor is controlled using the feed water system. The feed water pump has the task of taking the water from the feed water tank up to the vapour pressure in the reactor and steam generator at rates of 2200 kg/s. The power required is about 20 MW per pump.
G. Emergency power supply

The emergency power supplies of a nuclear power plant are built up by several layers of redundancy, such as diesel generators, gas turbine generators and battery buffers. The battery backup provides uninterrupted coupling of the diesel/gas turbine units to the power supply network. If necessary, the emergency power supply allows the safe shut down of the nuclear reactor. Less important auxiliary systems such as, for example, heat tracing of pipelines are not supplied by these back ups. The majority of the required power is used to supply the feed pumps in order cool reactor and remove the decay heat after shut down.

BLOCK DIAGRAM

3. Working
Initially control rods are fully inserted into the core and the reactor is said to be inactive, although nuclear fission continues but very suppressed. The temperature is maintained at 80oC. The process of reaction starts when the control rods are taken out of the core. The steps are written below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. As and when the control rods are taken out of the core, the reaction starts. This starts increasing the temperature of the nuclear reactor core. The absorbed by water and this water turns into steam. Once enough steam is generated, the valve at reactor output opens. This transfers the steam to heat exchanger where the steam is cooled and new steam is generated from the water from feed water pump. The cooled steam converts into water and is pumped into the reactor, thereby cooling it. The steam generated in the heat exchanger is sent to steam turbine once enough pressure is generated through steam control valve. The steam turbine turns the rotor of an alternator which generates power. This steam is condensed in a condenser which takes cold water from a natural source such as the sea or a river. Once the condenser is full the feed water pump starts pumping the condensed steam water to heat exchanger. The generated power is then transmitted through transmission lines. The process continues until the control rods are fully inserted or the reactor/plant is closed.

4. Ladder Diagram

5. SCADA IMPLEMENTATION A. Control Panel

B. Reactor Unit

C. Generation Unit

D. Power Supply Unit

E. Trends

F. Alarms

G. Graphic Designer Window

H. Tags Window