Nuclear Reactors
Nuclear Reactors
An Overview
Nuclear reactor is any class of devices that can initiate and control a self-sustaining series of nuclear fissions. Nuclear reactors are used as research tools, as systems for producing radioactive isotopes, and most prominently as energy sources for nuclear power plants.Djeresssi (1991)
Principles of operation
Nuclear reactors operate on the principle of nuclear fission, the process in which a heavy atomic nucleus splits into two smaller fragments. The nuclear fragments are in very excited states and emit neutrons, other subatomic particles, and photons. The emitted neutrons may then cause new fissions, which in turn yield more neutrons, and so forth. Such a continuous self-sustaining series of fissions constitutes a fission chain reaction. A large amount of energy is released in this process, and this energy is the basis of nuclear power systems.
In an atomic bomb the chain reaction is designed to increase in intensity until much of the material has fissioned. This increase is very rapid and produces the extremely prompt, tremendously energetic explosions characteristic of such bombs. In a nuclear reactor the chain reaction is maintained at a controlled, nearly constant level. Nuclear reactors are so designed that they cannot explode like atomic bombs.
Most of the energy of fission—approximately 85 percent of it—is released within a very short time after the process has occurred. The remainder of the energy produced as a result of a fission event comes from the radioactive decay of fission products, which are fission fragments after they have emitted neutrons. Radioactive decay is the process by which an atom reaches a more stable state; the decay process continues even after fissioning has ceased, and its energy must be dealt with in any proper reactor design.Moldowan(1989) Glickmann(2000) Holowitz (2003)
Chain reaction and criticality
The course of a chain reaction is determined by the probability that a neutron released in
An Overview
Nuclear reactor is any class of devices that can initiate and control a self-sustaining series of nuclear fissions. Nuclear reactors are used as research tools, as systems for producing radioactive isotopes, and most prominently as energy sources for nuclear power plants.Djeresssi (1991)
Principles of operation
Nuclear reactors operate on the principle of nuclear fission, the process in which a heavy atomic nucleus splits into two smaller fragments. The nuclear fragments are in very excited states and emit neutrons, other subatomic particles, and photons. The emitted neutrons may then cause new fissions, which in turn yield more neutrons, and so forth. Such a continuous self-sustaining series of fissions constitutes a fission chain reaction. A large amount of energy is released in this process, and this energy is the basis of nuclear power systems.
In an atomic bomb the chain reaction is designed to increase in intensity until much of the material has fissioned. This increase is very rapid and produces the extremely prompt, tremendously energetic explosions characteristic of such bombs. In a nuclear reactor the chain reaction is maintained at a controlled, nearly constant level. Nuclear reactors are so designed that they cannot explode like atomic bombs.
Most of the energy of fission—approximately 85 percent of it—is released within a very short time after the process has occurred. The remainder of the energy produced as a result of a fission event comes from the radioactive decay of fission products, which are fission fragments after they have emitted neutrons. Radioactive decay is the process by which an atom reaches a more stable state; the decay process continues even after fissioning has ceased, and its energy must be dealt with in any proper reactor design.Moldowan(1989) Glickmann(2000) Holowitz (2003)
Chain reaction and criticality
The course of a chain reaction is determined by the probability that a neutron released in