Does anybody know how many miles of pipe in an average nuclear plant? What is the cost of piping compare to other components? Do you know any references for that type of inforamtion.
1) no. It depends on the size and design of a plant and the particular layout the architect-engineer followed.
2) relatively the same, though piping is cheaper because there is less manufacturing cost
3) for item 2, I would try manufacturer's cataglogs.
Patricia Lougheed
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I can tell you a commercial reactor plant has much more piping than say a A-4W aircraft carrier plant, and many times more than a S6G submarine reactor plant. When it comes to operation no one cares about much more than loop transient times, heatup and cooldown rates, and loop volumes.
Actual pipe lengths and exact layout also depend on the specific plant. I can tell you first hand that the 688 class submarines each are a little different, even while maintaining almost identical operational characteristics.