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Lecture 16

Lecture 16: The Nuclear Power Plants

Fission and Fusion Reactions
Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion are two different types of energy-releasing reactions in which
energy is released from high-powered atomic bonds between the particles within the nucleus. The
main difference between these two processes is that fission is the splitting of an atom into two or
more smaller ones while fusion is the fusing of two or more smaller atoms into a larger one.

Physics behind both fission and fusion processes

The more the binding energy held within the bonds of an atom, more stable is an atom. Binding
energy is the amount of energy held within the bonds of the atoms. The most stable is the nucleon
of iron atom, which neither fuses nor splits. That’s why iron is at the top of the binding energy
curve. Each atom tries to become more stable by increasing its binding energy. For atomic nuclei
lighter than iron and nickel, energy can be extracted by combining these nuclei together through
nuclear fusion. In contrast, for atomic nuclei heavier than iron or nickel, energy can be released
by splitting the heavy nuclei through nuclear fission.

Nuclear Fission

Nuclear fission takes place when an atom's nucleus splits into two or
more smaller nuclei. These smaller nuclei are called fission products.
Particles (e.g., neutrons, photons, alpha particles) usually are released,
too. This is an exothermic process releasing kinetic energy of the
fission products and energy in the form of gamma radiation. Fission
may be considered a form of element transmutation since changing the
number of protons of an element essentially changes the element from
one into another.

In a typical nuclear reaction involving 235U and a neutron:

235
92 U + n = 23692U

followed by Fig. 16.1: Nuclear Fission Reaction

236
92 U = 14456Ba + 89 36Kr + 3n + 177 MeV

Nuclear Electricity Generation

Some brief comments are in order here concerning the future of use of nuclear reactors for
generation of electricity. Where is this headed after the end of the Cold War, and in particular
after the permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed on the text of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty?

 From nuclear electricity generation to nuclear weapons programs

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 Commercialization of the energy efficient and low-capital combined cycle gas-fired
electrical power plants and competitiveness of nuclear power plants anywhere where long
term access to natural gas is assured without large price increases.
 Political opposition to nuclear power. In Sweden and Germany (2022) this led to
decisions to abandon nuclear power altogether.
 Nuclear power in a number of former Soviet Republics, the availability of funds to even
maintain nuclear power production levels.
 The 2008 global economic upheaval had less effect on China and India than
elsewhere, and both of those countries planned expansion of nuclear reactor fleets in the
2010s.
 Massive subsidies for nuclear power is the idea that aggressive CO2 limitation measures
such as large carbon taxes would shift the economics of power generation significantly in
favor the nuclear approach. 

Fusion Energy Reactions

Nuclear Fusion

Nuclear fusion is the reaction in which two or more nuclei combine

together to form a new element with higher atomic number (more
protons in the nucleus). The energy released in fusion is related to E =
mc 2 (Einstein’s famous energy-mass equation). On earth, the most
likely fusion reaction is Deuterium–Tritium reaction. Deuterium and
Tritium are both isotopes of hydrogen.

2
 1Deuterium + 3 1Tritium = 42He + 10n + 17.6 MeV

The reactions which take place in the sun provide an example of Fig. 16.2: Nuclear Fusion Reaction

nuclear fusion:

1
1 H + 21H → 32He

3
2 He + 32He → 42He + 211H

1
1 H + 11H → 21H + 0+1β

Fusion Energy Resources

Tritium Production and Neutron Multiplication

200 - 1000 tons of Li per 1GW electric power plant is required to be stored in a blanket on site.
Only a very small fraction of that is actually consumed. The total amount of Li in mines in the
world is estimated to be 9,000,000 tons. There is at least that much again in the oceans of the
world where Li concentration is 0.17 ppm. A more limited but still large resource is beryllium.
This is found in nature only in the form of the isotope Be-9, which can serve as a "neutron
multiplier" using the reaction n + Be-9  2n + 2He-4. A neutron multiplier is needed because the
tritium breeding reaction shown below uses up the one neutron is produced by the tritium burning
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reaction D + T  n + He-4. Since some neutrons inevitable get absorbed by other materials
without breeding tritium, a reaction like n + Be-9  2n + 2He-4 is needed to make up for these
losses. Be-9 is about one-tenth as abundant in the earth's crust as Li.

Alternatives to Be-9 as a neutron multiplier are the fissionable materials used in existing nuclear
reactors. Using these materials as neutron multipliers in the "blanket" surrounding a fusion source
would also increase the overall energy release per fusion reaction. However, use of such materials
as neutron multipliers to produce hybrid fusion-fission reactors combines some of the
disadvantages of both approaches. The chance of a runaway fission reaction would be decreased,
but the additional hazards of having fissionable materials and their radioactive fission products
surround a fusion core might result in lowered net safety overall.

Fusion Energy Wastes

In case of fusion reactions, fusion reactors cannot sustain a chain reaction so they can never melt
down like fission reactors. Fusion reaction produces very less or, if the right atoms are chosen, no
radioactive waste. In case of nuclear fission large radioactive waste is produced and disposal of
radioactive waste is a complicated problem. For nuclear power, fusion is the better choice.

Fusion Energy Advantages

Benefits of Fusion Power

 The fuel has high energy content

 Fuel production causes little insult to environment
 No dangerous ash is produced
 Radioactive materials produced at a fusion plant are 10 to 100 times less hazardous then
those at fission plant
 Weapons grade fissile materials are not used.

However, fuel mining costs for fission reactors are only a few percent of the total cost of
electricity even in countries with modern environmental quality controls. Fusion reactors would
produce large volumes of materials heavily contaminated with mobile tritium and other
radioactive materials. A requirement for liquid lithium coolant and tritium breeder inside of large
cryogenically cooled high magnetic flux coils raises serious safety concerns. Tritium is an
important component of high yield nuclear weapons, and experience with producing handling
large amounts of tritium is relevant to the nuclear weapons capability of participating countries.

Nuclear weapons

One class of nuclear weapons, a fission bomb, otherwise known as an atomic bomb or atom
bomb, is a fission reactor designed to liberate as much energy as possible and as rapidly as
possible, before the released energy causes the reactor to explode (and the chain reaction to stop).

Another class is the hydrogen bomb, which functions by fusion of

lighter nuclei into the heavier one. Hydrogen bomb or H-bomb is a

Fig. 16.3: Two Method of

Assembling Fission Bomb
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weapon deriving its energy from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes; though in most
applications the bulk of its destructive energy comes from uranium fission, not hydrogen fusion.
Extremely high temperatures are required in order to initiate a fusion reaction which also gives
the hydrogen bomb the name of a thermonuclear bomb.

Fusion and Fission Economics

Nuclear fission: The inefficiency of cost comes into play when it is considered that nuclear fuel
creates heat and this heat is used to boil the water and the steam produced is used to turn turbine
to generate electricity. This transformation from heat energy to electrical energy is cumbersome
and expensive. A second source of inefficiency is that clean-up and storage of nuclear waste is
very expensive because the waste is radioactive and finally security issues add to the cost of
nuclear energy.
Nuclear fusion: For fusion to occur the atoms must be confined in the magnetic field and raised
to a temperature of 100 million Kelvin or more. This takes lot of electricity and hence cost
inefficiency comes in the picture. Hence both are cost inefficient logically for productive and
non destructive purpose.

Comparison chart
Nuclear Fission Nuclear Fusion
Fission is the splitting of a large Fusion is the fusing of two or more
Definition atom into two or more smaller lighter atoms into a larger one.
ones.
Natural occurrence Fission reaction does not Fusion occurs in stars, such as the
of the process normally occur in nature. sun.
Fission produces many highly Few radioactive particles are
By-products of the radioactive particles. produced by fusion reaction, but if a
reaction fission "trigger" is used, radioactive
particles will result from that.
Critical mass of the substance and High density, high temperature
Conditions
high-speed neutrons are required. environment is required.
Takes little energy to split two Extremely high energy is required to
Energy atoms in a fission reaction. bring two or more protons close
Requirement enough to overcome their electrostatic
repulsion.
The energy released by fission is The energy released by fusion is three
million times greater than that to four times greater than the energy
Energy Released released in chemical reactions, released by fission.
but lower than energy released by
nuclear fusion.
One class of nuclear weapon is a One class of nuclear weapon is the
Nuclear weapon fission bomb, also known as an hydrogen bomb, which uses fission
atomic bomb or atom bomb. reaction to "trigger" a fusion reaction.