power plant output

When a nuclear power plant has an output of, say, 800MWe, that's 800MW of electricity, but put out in what ammount of time? Is it per load of fuel, per life span, per year, month, what? Just curious.

 

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Your question is a bit confusing. (Not to mention I don't think there's such a unit as 'MWe')

A watt is a measure of power. A 800 MW nuclear powerplant can produce 800 megajoules of worth of usable electricity per second. (That's what a watt is: one joule per second.)

The actual output of the plant at any point in time (which one hopes will be below its maximum rated output) will factor in:

1) Availability of fuel components. After all, running out of fissable material won't help...

2) Age of the powerplant. Nuclear fission (and some fusion reactions for that matter) will negatively impact the structure of the powerplant due to the production of neutrons. You can imagine that it may not be good to run the plant at 'full steam' during its later years.

3) Current demand of the power grid. You don't want to produce too much more than you need to, that would be wasteful, both in terms of fuel and in the reduction of the lifespan of the reactor itself (neutrons...)

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Perhaps this will allow you to make your question a bit clearer so those more knowledgable than I can help you.

 

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kv1at3485 is right. Short answer: 800 MW = 800 Million Joules per second.

800 MW by the way is about the size of a typical nuclear unit (one generator) whereas most plants have multiple units.

 

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That's what I was asking, in what period of time does 800 MW leave the plant, and that's in a second. wasn't sure about if that was a measure of a quantity of energy or a rate or production, it was a bit confusing to me what exactly a MW was as opposed to a MWh. By the way, if a plant makes 800MW every second, would that mean that 3600 homes using 800MW per hour (MWh) are powered? I know that's an outrageous number, it's just an example.

I'm just shakey on my concept of energy measurement, so thanks yall

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No! You are still not clear on this. Here is a basic explanation of units of energy:

A Joule is a unit of energy. A kWh is also a unit of energy (1 kWh = 3,600,000 Joules). For reference, it takes about 4100 Joules to raise one kg of water by one degree C.

A Watt is a Joule per second which is a measure of the RATE of energy production or consumption.

So to clarify your questions, a 800MW plant produces 800MWh of energy in one hour. MW per hour does not make sense in this context.

Hope this helps.

 

Hello Weedeaterguy,

Don't worry about all that math they're giving you.

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The straightforward answer is that 800Mw would be the plant's peak production level. And in one hour it would produce 800Mwh (800 million watthours).

 

ahhh.... *light flickers to life* makes sence

 

Weedeaterguy,

It's kind of confusing because of the way industry terms things.... Scientifically speaking:

energy unit - Joule
power unit - Watt (Joule/second)

But in industry they typically speak of energy in (kilo)watt-hours. This is convenient for the energy companies but is a little stupid, scientifically speaking.

It's taking a unit of energy, (Joule) dividing by time to give power, (Watt) which is a RATE of energy consumption, and then multiplying it by a time again (hours) to get back to an energy unit.

So it's not 800 MegaWatts PER hour like you state, it's 800 MegaWatt-hours, which is a unit of energy.

hope that helps.

 

Hey weed eater guy,
"Will work for ammo"? A German who likes guns... I love it! Most Germans I've met are uber-liberals. They would shudder at the sight of an airsoft gun, let alone a real one.
I'm a shooter too, in fact I just ordered a Makarov pistol today (German design). This site can get pretty thick with Hillary-lovers so I'm glad to see a like mind once in a while.

With firearms they rate muzzle energy in ft*lbs. This is just another unit for energy which is literally the amount of energy required to apply 1 pound of force over a displacement distance of one foot (like lifting a 1 pound object 1 foot off the ground). Similarly, a Joule is equivalent to a N*m which is the amount of energy required to apply one Newton of force over a displacement of one meter. It would be technically correct to say a .357 Magnum produces 0.00019 kWh of muzzle energy but it doesn't sound as cool as 500 ft*lbs.

 

Isn't that what I said 4 hours ago? The peak power-carrying capacity of the plant is 800Mw. And if it runs for an hour at that rate it will have generated 800Mwh. After 2 hours it would have produced 1,600Mwh. That's exactly what I said earlier and avoids any need of referencing Joules or any other unit besides those given.

 

Hey Light,
Relax a little, you did the same thing. Look at my post right before yours: "a 800MW plant produces 800MWh of energy in one hour"

 

Indeed, we are repeating.

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And if I may ask, why do you think the usage of watt-hours is a little stupid scientifically? It's a very sensible term/quantity in my opinion.

 

Light, relax... I didn't realize you had already addressed every possible substantive point on the subject. I though refering to the basic energy units might help.

My opinion is it's just a little redundant to say kiloWatt-hour because it's a "rate-time"... kilo or mega Joules would be more concise.

Sort of like how we don't say I drove 2400 kilometres per hour - minutes to work today. We'd say I drove 40 km.

 

now i'm lost again, so 800mWh, is the energy from one second of 800mW (800mJ?), stretched over an hour? or not?

 

it's the amount of energy a plant putting out 800 MegaWatts (Million Joules/second) puts out in an hour.

b/t/w you need to use a capital M for Mega... small m is milli (meaning millionth)

 

so an 800MW plant puts out 2.88 terajoules per hour then, if you multiply 800,000,000 joules by 3600 seconds (or 1 hour). That is a hell of alot of energy...

 

Not quite.

I should have directed you to this site in the first place...

EDIT: Although I do find it interesting that the world's electricity consumption rate is equal to converting 0.15 g of matter into energy every second, or detonating a 3230 kT nuclear warhead every second.

 

Wait... what's wrong with weedeater's calculation?

 

Nothing wrong with the numbers. Although I would point out that the magnitude is not nearly as great, even by human terms.

 

No. Small m is milli meaning thousandth. A millionth is micro.