Is it feasible/economical to have a secondary power plant to convert all that he... | Hacker News

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		superkarn on March 13, 2011 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Nuclear Experts Explain Worst-Case Scenario at Fuk... Is it feasible/economical to have a secondary power plant to convert all that heat into electricity?

cstross on March 13, 2011 [–]

Not unless you repeal the second law of thermodynamics -- the 1.5Gw of heat was already used to generate 0.5Gw of electricity. In general, no thermal power plant can convert much more than about 40% of the input heat into useful work.

See also:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Rankine_cycle

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