Core, reactor

Fignre 2.47 Core of a nuclear reactor (from Babcock Wilcox [8]). 

The simplest model for fission energy generation corresponds to a bare, homogeneous core. The geometry of most practical importance is the cylindrical core, for which the distribution of (radial and axial) energy generation is given by 

The cross section of a fuel element is small compared with that of the core and the energy generation affecting the fuel element is uniform radially. 

Axial conduction in the coolant is negligible compared to axial enthalpy flow. 

The axial temperature gradient is an order of magnitude smaller than the radial temperature gradient, hence the axial conduction in the fuel, gap, and clad is negligible. 

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Energy Use and Conservation. A variety of materials are needed for high performance thermal insulation, particularly as components of nuclear reactors. Replacements for asbestos fibers are needed for components such as reactor core flooring, plumbing, and packaging. The fibers must be very resistant to high temperatures with outstanding dimensional stabiHty and resistance to compression. 

Whereas addition of hydrogen to feedwater helps solve the O2 or ECP problem, other complications develop. An increase in shutdown radiation levels and up to a fivefold increase in operating steam plant radiation levels result from the increased volatiUty of the short-Hved radioactive product nitrogen-16, N, (7.1 s half-life) formed from the coolant passing through the core. Without H2 addition, the in the fluid leaving the reactor core is in the form of nitric acid, HNO with H2 addition, the forms ammonia, NH, which is more volatile than HNO, and thus is carried over with the steam going to the turbine. 

The fifth component is the stmcture, a material selected for weak absorption for neutrons, and having adequate strength and resistance to corrosion. In thermal reactors, uranium oxide pellets are held and supported by metal tubes, called the cladding. The cladding is composed of zirconium, in the form of an alloy called Zircaloy. Some early reactors used aluminum fast reactors use stainless steel. Additional hardware is required to hold the bundles of fuel rods within a fuel assembly and to support the assembhes that are inserted and removed from the reactor core. Stainless steel is commonly used for such hardware. If the reactor is operated at high temperature and pressure, a thick-walled steel reactor vessel is needed. 

Most nuclear reactors use a heat exchanger to transfer heat from a primary coolant loop through the reactor core to a secondary loop that suppHes steam (qv) to a turbine (see HeaT-EXCHANGETECHNOLOGy). The pressurized water reactor is the most common example. The boiling water reactor, however, generates steam in the core. 

Fig. 11. Reactor core of MONJU, the Japanese fast-breeder reactor. Courtesy of Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp.

The Los Alamos water boiler served as a prototype for the first university training reactor, started in September 1953 at North Carolina State College. The cylindrical reactor core used uranyl sulfate [1314-64-3] UO2SO4, and cooling water tubes wound inside the stainless steel container. A thick graphite reflector surrounded the core. 

Hafnium-free zirconium is particularly weU-suited for these appHcations because of its ductiHty, excellent oxidation resistance in pure water at 300°C, low thermal neutron absorption, and low susceptibiHty to radiation. Nuclear fuel cladding and reactor core stmctural components are the principal uses for zirconium metal. 

Specimen Location Emergency service water system piping to reactor core spray... 

Size requirements are limited by packaging considerations for neutron irradiation. Typically, polyethylene or quartz containers are used to contain the sample in the reactor core. For example. Si wafers are cleaved into smaller pieces and dame sealed... 

The fuel for the Peach Bottom reactor consisted of a uranium-thorium dicarbide kernel, overcoated with pyrolytic carbon and silicon carbide which were dispersed in carbon compacts (see Section 5), and encased in graphite sleeves [37]. There were 804 fuel elements oriented vertically in the reactor core. Helium coolant flowed upward through the tricusp-shaped coolant channels between the fuel elements. A small helium purge stream was diverted through the top of each element and flowed downward through the element to purge any fission products leaking from the fuel compacts to the helium purification system. The Peach... 

The reactor core was made up of stacks of hexagonal graphite blocks. Each fuel element block had 210 axial fuel holes and 108 axial coolant holes (Section 5, Fig. 14). The fuel particles were formed into a fuel compact (Section 5.3) and sealed into the fuel channels. 

T. D. Burchell, M. O. Tucker and B. McEnaney. Qualitative and Quantitative Studies of Fracture in Nuclear Graphites, Materials for nuclear reactor core applications. BNES, London, 1987, pp. 95-103. 

The low-power-density, low enrichment reactor core uses soluble boron and burnable poisons for shutdown and fuel bumup reactivity control. Low worth grey rods provide load following. A heavy uranium flywheel extends the pump coastdown to allow for emergency action during loss-of-flow transients. 

The partial containment system had many rooms in one room, with a pressure capability of about 26 psi, was the reactor core. The steam drums were in two rooms four main recirculation pumps were in each of two rooms. 

A critical assembly is a split bed on which fissionable material used to mock up up a separated reactor core that is stacked half on each half. One half is on roller guides so that the two halves may be quickly pulled apart if the neutron multiplication gets too high. Use the Preliminary Hazards Analysis method described in section 3,2.1 to identify the possible accidents that may occur and the qualitative probabilities and consequences. List the initiators in a matrix to systematically investigate the whole process. Don t forget human error. 

Any release of radioactive material affecting the public requires temperature above the melting point of the materials to deform the reactor core and confining structures This section lists the barriers preventing release, presents scoping calculations that illustrate the conditions and time scale of concern. Conjectures are presented as to how core melt might happen. The section concludes with information about the partial core melt that occurred at TMI-2. 

A reactor core s fission product inventory is the primary source of radioactivity from which the public is protected by the following independent barriers ... 

High-pressure coolant injection and reactor core isolation cooling when residual heat removal has failed... 

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