The palo verde nuclear power plant in arizona is the largest nuclear power plant in the united states with three reactors and a total net summer electricity generating capacity of about 3 937 mw.
How much energy does a nuclear power plant produce compared to coal.
Nuclear energy has been powering the u s.
A typical nuclear reactor produces 1 gigawatt gw of electricity.
That residue forms a toxic mess with pollutants such as arsenic cadmium chromium and mercury see.
Remember nuclear energy produces almost 8 000x the amount per.
The amount of electricity that a power plant generates during a period of time depends on the amount of time it operates at a specific capacity.
A typical coal burning power plant creates over 300 000 tons of waste ash and sludge each year.
But this incredible technology isn t new.
Efficiency and reliability a pellet of nuclear fuel weighs approximately 0 1 ounce 6 grams.
However that single pellet yields the amount of energy equivalent to that generated by a ton of coal 120 gallons of oil or 17 000 cubic feet of natural gas making nuclear fuel much more efficient than fossil fuels.
Nuclear power costs can be around the same as a coal fired plant but over time the initial costs for the plant to operate go down.
Grid for the past 6 decades and produces around 1 gigawatt of power per plant on average.