S1E7 – Nuclear Power Plants Essentials – Condenser Transcript
This is a transcript of the video S1E7 – Nuclear Power Plants Essentials – Condenser
G’day and welcome back to the Engineering All Sorts Video Courses – professional development for teachers, helping you to Engineer your Expertise. My name is Daniel, and I’m your navigator of all things Engineering. I’m also the founder of Engineering All Sorts, where we’re all about Engineering for Educators – stem education to help you to be confident in the details – over at engineeringallsorts.com.au.
In this video we’ll be looking at the next part of the nuclear power plant, the condenser. This is where the cool steam from the turbine gets cooled down further so it becomes water again. We’ll also look at an engineering consideration for the condenser – ease of maintenance.
At the end of this video you’ll be able to:
- Identify the different components of a condenser in form and function
- Describe the flow and conversion of energy through a condenser
- Contrast key considerations in the creation and operation of a nuclear power plant, such as maintenance
For the full list of learning outcomes, transcripts and worksheets for this series, check out the downloads section of the series at engineeringallsorts.com.au
This video’s a quick one, so let’s not muck around – let’s take it apart!
So here we have the outer casing and tubes of a condenser. This system is another heat exchanger, this time allowing cool water and comparatively warm steam to transfer their heat.
The condenser is necessary to make sure circuit 2, the one with the steam in it, is a closed-loop system. This means the steam is not simply used only once and then vented into the atmosphere, but instead cooled down and fed back into the steam generator to go through the process again. This improves efficiency and significantly reduces water use.
The act of cooling the steam also creates a nice vacuum in the line, so the steam is drawn through the turbine more efficiently. This flow is sometimes assisted with a small vacuum pump.
The condenser is basically thousands of small tubes, aiming to increase the surface area between the cool water and warm steam. More surface area means faster heat transfer.
The cool water travels in one side of the tube array, through all the small tubes, collecting heat from the steam, and then flows out the other end. The steam from the turbine is piped into the top of the condenser, and cools down as it flows over the cool tubes that have the cooling water inside. Once the steam cools down enough it condenses and becomes water itself, which drips to the bottom of the condenser in a section called the hot well. This liquid is called condensate, and it is drawn off to flow back to the reactor building and steam generator.
But now, a quick activity for a quick video. Shut your eyes and try and answer the following without looking at the board. This one tricked me also, so it’s easy to get wrong. Ready? Here it is.
Does the cooling water flow through the pipes, or around the outside of the pipes?
Just pause the video to give yourself enough time, and then come back to us when you are done.
How did you go? Please share your answer in the comments below. You can open your eyes now and check your answer, too.
The last thing to consider is the maintenance of the condenser. Like the steam generator in the reactor building, the tubes are small and numerous, and tightly packed together. They are hard to clean and almost impossible to access. Some things that a nuclear power plant operator needs to consider are:
• How can the tubes be cleaned?
• How can we stop them getting deposits in the first place?
• What do we do about erosion of the pipe material?
• What about corrosion and cracking?
The answers usually lie in frequent inspections, so issues are fixed before they get worse; water quality monitoring, to make sure there isn’t anything to stick to the tubes; and shutdowns for regular cleaning or replacement.
In this video we’ve covered the basic concept of the condenser, which using cooling water to cool the steam from the turbine down enough so that it becomes water again. We also looked at the condenser maintenance issues that face a nuclear plant operator, such as cleaning, deposits, erosion, corrosion and cracking.
Don’t forget you can check out the resources for this series and more professional development for teachers at engineeringallsorts.com.au, including learning outcomes, transcripts and worksheets.
If you haven’t left your comments below from the activity it would be great if you could also share that below, so we can all share our stem education.
Thanks for watching and I hope you’re looking forward to the next video, where we look the last major component of the nuclear power plant, and finally figure out what those big concrete towers are for! I’ll see you there!
This is a transcript of the video S1E7 – Nuclear Power Plants Essentials – Condenser