S1E9 – Nuclear Power Plants Essentials – Series Recap Transcript

This is a transcript of the video S1E9 – Nuclear Power Plants Essentials – Series Recap

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 the series you’ve just seen we’ve covered a lot of ground. We took apart a nuclear power plant to find out how they work and what kind of engineering thought is needed to build and run them. You’ll remember that it’s all about using the uranium fission reaction to heat water, to make steam to run a turbine, to run a generator to finally make electricity for the electricity network. During this process we turn heat energy into mechanical energy and then finally electrical energy, with no less than 3 heat exchangers, 3 water circuits and many pressures and temperatures in between.

We looked at components such as the steam generator, turbine, generator, condenser, cooling tower and a few different types of reactor. We also looked at the fission process, where a neutron hitting a uranium atom sparks a chain reaction that generates heat, more neutrons and smaller atoms.

And lastly we put on our engineers hat and look at some key engineering considerations for designing a nuclear power plant; such as controlling the complicated fission process, dealing with radioactive waste and radioactivity, social concerns, safety to staff and the local population, and maintenance, operation and construction costs.

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Don’t forget you can find the full list of learning outcomes, transcripts and worksheets for this series in the downloads section of the series at engineeringallsorts.com.au

Whilst you are at the website, check out our other great video courses for more professional development for teachers and stem education, such as Series 2 – Engines Essentials, and Series 3 – Computers Essentials.

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It’s been awesome to have you with us so far, and I hope that you’ve enjoyed this video series from Engineering All Sorts. I hope we see you again soon, but until then, take care, and make sure you take something apart to see how it works!

This is a transcript of the video S1E9 – Nuclear Power Plants Essentials – Series Recap