Energy nuclear

Nuclear energy in almost inconceivable quantities can be obtained from nuclear fission and fusion reactions according to Einstein s famous equation 

The in this equation is the energy of the process. The m is the mass of the matter that is converted to energy—the change in rest mass. Note well that it is not the total mass of the reactant nucleus, but only the mass of the matter that is converted to energy. Sometimes the equation is written as 

The c in the equation is the velocity of light, 3.00 x 10 m/s. The constant c is so large that conversion of a very tiny quantity of matter produces a huge quantity of energy. 

EXAMPLE 19.10. Calculate the amount of energy produced when 1.00 g of matter is converted to energy. (Note More than 1.00 g of isotope is used in this reaction.) 1 J = 1 kg-m /s  

Nuclear fusion reactions involve combinations of nuclei. The fusion reaction of the hydrogen bomb involves the fusing of deuterium, jH, in lithium deuteride, Li H  

Nuclear energy is the energy associated with mass. Before the German physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955), everyone assumed that mass and energy were two completely different quantities—mass being associated with material objects, whereas energy has no material substance to it. 

This means that a car moving down the highway has more mass than the same car at rest, that a book Ufted 2 feet above a desktop has more mass than the same book when sitting on the desk, and that the products of a chemical reaction really do not have exactly the same total mass as the reactants, since at least some heat is given off or absorbed by every chemical reaction. These changes in mass, however, are so miniscule that we neglect them. 

In nuclear reactions, on the other hand, since an enormous amount of energy is released, the changes in mass are appreciable. 

Mechanical work is the product of force times distance. 

Nuclear mass is always lower than the sum of proton and neutron masses because of mass-energy conversion, which transforms part of the mass into binding energy. For example, He has mass 4.002604, whereas the total mass of two protons and two neutrons is 4.032981. Based on Einstein s equation 

Both protons and neutrons in the nucleus have an intrinsic angular momentum resulting from spinning of nucleons, 

In spite of a moratorium in some countries on the construction of new nuclear power plants, predictions indicate that the present world nuclear energy production of 22.7 EJ will reach about 30 EJ by 2020. This growth in the use of nuclear power is primarily due to its attractiveness as a clean nonfossU energy source. 

Most zirconium is used as an oxide in commercial applications. Only a few percent is converted to the metal and used in chemical process industries because of its excellent corrosion resistance, while a special grade of zirconium is used in the nuclear industry. There are no official statistics for the production and consumption of zirconium metal. The annual global production capacity is estimated approximately at 85001, and total production/consumption is about 7000 t/year. The main applications of zirconium metal are for the nuclear energy and chemical process industries. About 85% of zirconium metal, 5000-6000 t/year, is used in the nuclear industry. Commercial-quality zirconium still contains 1 -3% hafnium. This contaminant is unimportant except in nuclear applications. For nuclear reactor materials, the zirconium metal should have a very low hafnium content of less than 0.01 wt%. Most Zr metal is produced by the reduction of the zirconium (ZrCy chloride with magnesium metal in the Kroll process. 

For zirconium production, the Van Arkel-de Boer process [1] and the Kroll process [2] are the two main processes applied in the industry. The Van Arkel-de Boer process is also known as the iodide process or the crystal bar process, developed by the Dutch chemists Van Arkel and De Boer in 1925 [1]. It is the first industrial process for the commercial production of pure ductile metallic zirconium, and is still in use for the production of small quantities of ultra-pure titanium and zirconium. The Van Arkel-de Boer process involves the use of elemental iodine and crude metal, in the form of a sponge or alloy scrap, to form a volatile metal iodide at a low temperature. At a high temperature, the metal iodide will thermally decompose into pure metal and gaseous iodine. The Kroll process is a process used to produce titanium metal [2], developed in 1945 by 

Molten Salts Chemistry and Technology, First Edition. Edited by Marcelle Gaune-Escard and Geir Martin Haarberg. 2014 John Wiley Sons, Ltd. Published 2014 by John Wiley Sons, Ltd. 

The pyrometallurgical methods were developed based on the differences between zirconium and hafnium in oxidation and reduction characteristics [11, 12] volatility [13-16] electrochemical properties [17-19] and molten metal-molten salt equilibrium [20, 21], The extractive distillation process, using carbochlori-nation of zircon [13], is in operation by CEZUS in France. Both chlorides are sublimated and run through a vertical distillation column containing molten aluminium chloride and potassium chloride. Both hafnium and zirconium tetrachloride chlorides dissolve, but hafnium tetrachloride has a higher vapour pressure and is therefore condensed from the top of the column in a hafnium-enriched mixture. The zirconium tetrachloride is partitioned to a liquid phase and recovered from a salt, typically containing less than 50 ppm hafnium. 

2 Compact process route for reactor grade zirconium production 

A limitation of fission reactors is the fact that only 0.71% of natural uranium is fissionable uranium-235. This situation could be improved by the development of breeder reactors, which convert uranium-238 (natural abundance 99.28%) to fissionable plutonium-239. 

A major consideration in the widespread use of nuclear fission power is the production of large quantities of highly radioactive waste products. These remain lethal for thousands of 

FIGURE 17.16 A typical nuclear fission power plant. 

According to the European Nuclear Society, as of the year 2012, there were 435 nuclear power plants operating around the world. With an installed electric net capacity of about 368 GW, these reactors were running in 31 countries. The country with the largest nuclear capacity is the United States with 104 power reactors followed by France (58), Japan (50, though by May 2012, all of these had been temporarily taken out of commission because of concern over the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant accident), and the Russian Federation (33). As of 2012, there were 63 nuclear power plants with a total installed capacity of 61 GW under construction in 15 countries. 

After consumption of Na l, the patient s thyroid is scanned for radioactivity levels to determine the efficiency of iodine absorption. (a) Scan of radioactive iodine in a normal thyroid. 

Radiotracers provide sensitive and nonsurgical methods for learning about biologic systems, for detecting disease, and for monitoring the action and effectiveness of drugs. Some useful radiotracers are iisted in Table 18.4. 

AIM To introduce fusion and fission as producers of nuclear energy. 

The protons and the neutrons in atomic nuclei are bound together with forces that are much greater than the forces that bind atoms together to form moiecules. In fact, the energies associated with nuciear processes are more than a million times those associated with chemicai reactions. This potentiaiiy makes the nucleus a very attractive source of energy. 

Because medium-sized nuclei contain the strongest binding forces (IgFe has the strongest binding forces of all), there are two types of nuclear processes that produce energy  

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This product, given the abbreviation FOD (fuel-oil domestique) in France, still held a considerable market share there of 17 Mt in 1993. However, since 1973 when its consumption reached 37 Mt, FOD has seen its demand shrink gradually owing to development of nuclear energy and electric heating. FOD also faces strong competition with natural gas. Nevertheless, its presence in the French, European and worldwide petroleum balance will still be strong beyond tbe year 2000. 

In 1993, French consumption of these products was around 6 Mt and 2.5 Mt respectively for use in burners and in diesel engines. The latter figure appears in the statistics under the heading, marine bunker fuel . Its consumption been relatively stable for several years, whereas heavy industrial fuel use has diminished considerably owing to the development of nuclear energy. However, it seems that heavy fuel consumption has reached a bottom limit in areas where it is difficult to replace, e.g., cement plants. 

Teterev, Yu.G., Proc.Regional Mtg. Nuclear Energy in Central Europe Present and Perspectives , Nucl.Soc. of Slovenia, Portoroz, Slovenia (June 1993) 598... 

MS Mossbauer Spectroscopy [233-236] Chemical shift of nuclear energy states, usually of iron Chemical state of atoms... 

Tire total energy equals the sum of the nuclear energy (the electrostatic repulsion between the positively charged nuclei) and the electronic energy. The electronic energy comprises... 

Until World War 11, there was no commercial production of elemental fluorine. The nuclear bomb project and nuclear energy applications, however, made it necessary to produce large quantities. 

Commercial-grade zirconium contains from 1 to 3% hafnium. Zirconium has a low absorption cross section for neutrons, and is therefore used for nuclear energy applications, such as for... 

It is used in certain nickel-based alloys, such as the "Hastelloys(R)" which are heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant to chemical solutions. Molybdenum oxidizes at elevated temperatures. The metal has found recent application as electrodes for electrically heated glass furnaces and foreheaths. The metal is also used in nuclear energy applications and for missile and aircraft parts. Molybdenum is valuable as a catalyst in the refining of petroleum. It has found applications as a filament material in electronic and electrical applications. Molybdenum is an... 

Nonfosstl Fuel Power (%) Hydroenergy Nuclear Energy... 

Thorium, uranium, and plutonium are well known for their role as the basic fuels (or sources of fuel) for the release of nuclear energy (5). The importance of the remainder of the actinide group Hes at present, for the most part, in the realm of pure research, but a number of practical appHcations are also known (6). The actinides present a storage-life problem in nuclear waste disposal and consideration is being given to separation methods for their recovery prior to disposal (see Waste treati nt, hazardous waste Nuclear reactors, waste managet nt). 

G. T. Seaborg,. J. Katz, and W. M. Manning eds.. The Transuranium Elements Research Papers, National Nuclear Energy Series, Div. IV, 14B, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., New York, 1949. 

Nuclear energy is that generated by electric utiUties... 

The sputtering yield is proportional to the number of displaced atoms. In the linear cascade regime that is appUcable for medium mass ions (such as argon), the number of displaced atoms, E (E, is proportional to the energy deposited per unit depth as a result of nuclear energy loss. The sputtering yield Y for particles incident normal to the surface can be expressed as foUows (31). 

Gadolinium s extremely high cross section for thermal neutrons, 4.6 x 10 (46,000 bams) per atom, is the reason for its extensive use in the nuclear energy (see Nuclearreactors). It is used as a component of the fuel or control rods, where it acts as a consumable poison, a trap for neutrons in the reactor (39). 

Cranium Resources, Production and Demand,]o m. Report of OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency, OECD Pubhcations Service, Paris, 1994, p. 17. 

Fig. 8. Cutaway view of the Model BWR/6 pressure vessel (52). Courtesy of GE Nuclear Energy.

Courtesy of GE Nuclear Energy. For a more complete Hst, see Refs. 11 and 52. To convert MPa to psia, multiply by 145. 

Aircraft Reactors. As early as World War II, the U.S. Army Air Force considered the use of a nuclear reactor for the propulsion of aircraft (62—64). In 1946 the nuclear energy for propulsion of aircraft (NEPA) program was set up at Oak Ridge, under Fairchild Engine and Airplane Corporation. Basic theoretical and experimental studies were carried out. The emphasis was on materials. A high temperature reactor was built and operated successfiiUy. 

Small and Medium Keactors, I. Status and Prospects, II. Technical Supplement, Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Paris, 1991. 

Strategic Plan for Building New Nuclear Power Plants, Nuclear Energy Institute Executive Committee, Washiagton, D.C., 1994 (armual update). 

BWRf 6 General Description of a Boiling Water Reactor, General Electric Co., Nuclear Energy Group, San Jose, California, 1980. 

P. V. Evans, ed.. Fast Breeder Reactors, Proceedings of the London Conference on Past Breeder Reactors of the British Nuclear Energy Society, May... 

J. E. Till and H. R. Meyer, eds.. Radiological Assessment, A Textbook on Environmental Dose Analysis, NUREG/CR-3332, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washiagton, D.C., 1983 Disposal of Radioactive Waste Review of S afety Assessment Methods, Nuclear Energy Agency, Paris, 1991. 

B. L. Cohen, The Nuclear Energy Option An Alternative for the 90s, Plenum Press, New York, 1990. 

Nucleai energy is a principal contributor to the production of the world s electricity. As shown in Table 1, many countries are strongly dependent on nuclear energy. For some countries, more than half of the electricity is generated by nuclear means (1,3). There were 424 nuclear power plants operating worldwide as of 1995. Over 100 of these plants contributed over 20% of the electricity in the United States (see also Power generation). 

In plutonium-fueled breeder power reactors, more plutonium is produced than is consumed (see Nuclearreactors, reactor types). Thus the utilisa tion of plutonium as a nuclear energy or weapon source is especially attractive to countries that do not have uranium-enrichment faciUties. The cost of a chemical reprocessing plant for plutonium production is much less than that of a uranium-235 enrichment plant (see Uranium and uranium compounds). Since the end of the Cold War, the potential surplus of Pu metal recovered from the dismantling of nuclear weapons has presented a large risk from a security standpoint. 

Plutonium Duel An Assessment, Organi2ation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Nuclear Energy Agency, Paris, France, 1989. 

Proceedings of the International Conference on Eiquid Alkali Metals, Bdtish Nuclear Energy Society, London, Apr. 4—6,1973. 

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