How Much Energy Does A Nuclear Power Plant Produce Compared To Coal

A typical coal burning power plant creates over 300 000 tons of waste ash and sludge each year.

How much energy does a nuclear power plant produce compared to coal. Grid for the past 6 decades and produces around 1 gigawatt of power per plant on average. Efficiency and reliability a pellet of nuclear fuel weighs approximately 0 1 ounce 6 grams. That doesn t mean you can simply replace it with a 1 gigawatt coal or renewable plant. 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.

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. Remember nuclear energy produces almost 8 000x the amount per. A typical nuclear reactor produces 1 gigawatt gw of electricity. Based on the capacity factors above you would need almost two coal or three to four renewable plants each of 1 gw size to generate the same amount of electricity onto the grid.

But this incredible technology isn t new. 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. 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.