Contemporary Power Research Articles

The Present Danger

The recent growth of concern over the danger of nuclear war has been dramatic and impressive. It is also eminently realistic. Any sane and rational person who considers the scale and character of contemporary military power, the current vast expansion of the military arsenals of the superpowers, and the proliferation of armaments throughout the world would surely have to conclude that the likelihood of a global catastrophe is not small.One might argue, in fact, that it is a miracle that the catastrophe has not yet occurred. According to a Brookings Institutions study by Barry M. Blechman and Stephen S. Kaplan, from November, 1946, to October, 1973, there were nineteen incidents in which U.S. strategic nuclear forces were involved (we do hot have the record since, nor the record for the USSR and other powers). That means, to put it plainly, that every U.S. president regarded the use of nuclear weapons as a live policy option. The examples are instructive.

The Economy as a System of Power

The articles in this volume address the fact and use of economic power in the American economy. The institutional economists' perspective exhibited here reflects a century-long focus on and concern with economic power begun by Thorstein Veblen. This volume presents a new generation of institutionalist scholars who add to that tradition a fresh and penetrating analysis of contemporary power centers and assessments of their use of power.

Heat Exchanger Design Considerations for Gas Turbine HTGR Power Plant

The Gas Turbine High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (GT-HTGR) power plant combines the existing design HTGR core with a closed-cycle helium gas turbine power conversion system directly in the reactor primary circuit. Unlike open-cycle gas turbines where the recuperative heat exchanger is an optional component, the high cycle efficiency of the nuclear closed-cycle gas turbine is attributable to a high degree to the incorporation of the recuperator (helium-to-helium) and precooler (helium-to-water) exchangers in the power conversion loop. For the integrated plant configuration, a nonintercooled cycle with a high degree of heat recuperation was selected on the basis of performance and economic optimization studies. A recuperator of high effectiveness was chosen because it significantly reduces the optimum pressure ratio (for maximum cycle efficiency), and thus reduces the number of compressor and turbine stages for the low molecular weight, high specific heat, helium working fluid. Heat rejection from the primary system is effected by a helium-to-water precooler, which cools the gas to a low level prior to compression. The fact that the rejection heat is derived from the sensible rather than the latent heat of the cycle working fluid results in dissipation over a wide band of temperature, the high average rejection temperature being advantageous for either direct air cooling or for generation of power in a waste heat cycle. The high heat transfer rates in the recuperator (3100 MWt) and precooler (1895 MWt), combined with the envelope restraints associated with heat exchanger integration in the prestressed concrete reactor vessel, require the use of more compact surface geometries than in contemporary power plant steam generators. Various aspects of surface geometry, flow configuration, mechanical design, fabrication, and integration of the heat exchangers are discussed for a plant in the 1100 MWe class. The influence of cycle parameters on the relative sizes of the recuperator and precooler are also presented. While the preliminary designs included are not meant to represent final solutions, they do embody features that satisfy many of the performance, structural, safety, and economic requirements.

The Field Army in Chinese Communist Military Politics

Since their formal organization in February 1949, the “Field Armies” of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) have fascinated various students of the Chinese Communist political process. Unfortunately their roles, other than those associated with combat, have never been carefully studied or defined. One of the consequences has been that most observers, especially Western observers, have neglected these institutions in their search for the origins and parameters of contemporary formal and informal power, collective and individual. In part, this neglect has reflected a dearth of essential research on Chinese Communist military biography and military history, without which neither the 1949 nor the 1968 military-political significance of the Field Armies could emerge from the superficial picture of them as triumphant masses of combat forces sweeping across the Mainland in 1950.

The Political Economy of National Security: A Study of the Economic Aspects of the Contemporary Power Struggle

The Political Economy of National Security: A Study of the Economic Aspects of the Contemporary Power Struggle

The Political Economy of National Security: A Study of the Economic Aspects of the Contemporary Power Struggle.

The Political Economy of National Security: A Study of the Economic Aspects of the Contemporary Power Struggle.

The Political Economy of National Security.A study of the economic aspects of the contemporary power struggle. James R. Schlesinger. Praeger, New York, 1960. vii + 292 pp. $5

The Political Economy of National Security.A study of the economic aspects of the contemporary power struggle. James R. Schlesinger. Praeger, New York, 1960. vii + 292 pp. $5

The Political Economy of National Security . A study of the economic aspects of the contemporary power struggle. James R. Schlesinger. Praeger, New York, 1960. vii + 292 pp. $5.

<i>The Political Economy of National Security</i> . A study of the economic aspects of the contemporary power struggle. James R. Schlesinger. Praeger, New York, 1960. vii + 292 pp. $5.