Some Nuclear power plant have used sea water as a coolant. Choosing the correct type of piping to carry the sea water throughout the plant is very important because sea water contains trace amounts of gold ans silver ions. Are copper pipes suitable for nuclear power plants which use sea water? why?
Copper doesn't erode when exposed to salt water.
they natuarly treat the water
not really , copper corrodes quite rapidly especially in the presence of salt, why the statue of liberty is green.
I would think that the key issue would be to avoid corrosion of the pipes by the salt in seawater. I have no idea what pipes you would use. Seawater would not flow through the reactor. It would only be used to carry waste heat away from the condenser in the steam turbine.
Copper pipes are *not* repeat *not* suitable for carrying salt water for any purpose, especially cooling water for a nuclear power plant. Seawater is *highly* corrosive to a wide variety of metals including copper, but not because of the trace amounts of Au and Ag ions, but primarily because of the salt in the water. However, Monel, which is an alloy of nickel and copper, turns out to be a good choice for carrying seawater.
