Introduction

Abstract

Since the first nuclear power plants were commissioned for electricity generation, namely Shippingport, Yankee and Dresden in the USA (1957–1961), Calder Hall and Chapelcross in the UK (1956–1958), the exploitation of nuclear fission energy for power generation has taken a powerful upward trend, especially in the sixties and early seventies. By late 1981, some 260 nuclear power plants with an aggregate power of 153,000 MW (e) were in operation worldwide in 22 countries (Table 1–1). This power is generated chiefly in three types of nuclear power plants: light water reactors (LWR’s), of which there are the two variants of pressurized water reactors (PWR’s) and foiling water reactors (BWR’s), and a variant of the light water cooled graphite moderated reactor (LGR), which is being used especially in the USSR; the heavy water reactors (HWR’s), especially of the CANDU type (Canadian D ₂ O uranium); and the gas cooled reactors fueled with natural uranium (MAGNOX) or enriched uranium (AGR, advanced gas cooled reactor). The light water reactor line has made by far the greatest contributions to nuclear power generation, its plants attaining unit sizes of 1300 MW (e).