What are nuclear reactors???

Different types nuclear reactors??

What if their were fusion reactors???
The Chernobyl disaster!!!oh no silly
mistake!!killed thousands of people!!!
And many more things to eat!!!###
APPETIZERS: nuclear
reactors And how do they
work??
• Nuclear reactors are the heart of
nuclear power plants.They contain and
control nuclear chain reactions which
produce heat by fission which produces
heat the this heat is used to make steam
which is used to spin a turbine that
produces electricity. These are the
largest reliable carbon -free electricity
available.
• There are 450 nuclear reactors
worldwide out of which 98 ARE IN THE
USA
What are nuclear reactors made of??:
Nuclear reactors use uranium as their
fuel which is kept in small ceramic{made
of clay and hardened by heat}pellets
These are then sealed and stacked into
metal rods called fuel rods
More than 200 of these rods are bundled
together to form a fuel assembly.
Then there are control rods.The number of
control rods and the distance between
them strongly influences the reactivity of
the reactor.
Water is the other main component of the
nuclear reactors.
 What is the function of

these components ????
WATER: The fuel rods are immersed in water
which acts as both coolant and moderator.This
helps to slow down the neutrons to sustain the
main reaction.
 FUEL RODS : A long slender zirconium metal
tube containing pellets of fissionable material
which provide fuel for the nuclear reactors.Fuel
rods are assembled into bundles called fuel
assemblies which are loaded individually into the
reactors
 CONTROL RODS: They are used to reduce the
reaction rate or withdrawn to increase it in
order to have control over the reaction.These also
control the fission rate of uranium and
plutonium. These are an extremely important
part of the nuclear reactors.
WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT CONTROL RODS THAT
THEY CAN INCREASE AND DECREASE THE RATE OF
THE NUCLEAR REACTION?????
 The composition includes chemical elements
such as boron,cadmium,indium which are
capable of absorbing neutrons.
 NOW THE QUESTION ARISES WHY ARE
THESE ELEMENTS SO SPECIAL????
 Well it is because each of these elements have
different neutron capture cross
sections.Neutron cross section is used to
express the likelihood of interaction between
an incident neutron and the target nucleus.The
larger the neutron cross section the more likely
a neutron will react with the nucleus.
NUCLIDES :
 Nuclides which tend to absorb a neutron or
decay it or keep it in the nucleus are
neutron absorbers.
 Which can undergo the process of fission
are called fissionable fuels and have a
corresponding fission cross section.
 The remaining will just simply scatter the
neutron and have scatter cross section.
 The standard unit of measuring the cross
section is the barn which is 10^-28m^2
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF NUCLEAR
REACTORS AND HOW THEY WORK???
 All commercial reactors in the US are light water
reactors.They use normal water as a coolant and
moderator.
 More than 65% of the li are PWR{pressurized
water reactors}
 These pump water into the reactor core under
high pressure to prevent water from boiling.The
water in the core is heated by nuclear fission and
then pumped into tubes inside a heat exchanger.
These tubes heat a separate water source to create
steam which then turns an electric generator on to
produce electricity.
Boiling water reactors:
 Boiling water reactors produce steam
directly inside the reactor vessel .Water is
pumped up through the reactor core and
heated by fission pipes then feed the steam
directly to a turbine to produce electricity.
 A boiling water reactor (BWR) uses
demineralized water as a coolant and
neutron moderator. Heat is produced by
nuclear fission in the reactor core, and this
causes the cooling water to boil, producing
steam.
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
PWR :
 ADVANTAGES:
 PWR reactors are very stable due to their
tendency to produce less power as
temperatures increase this makes the
reactor easier to operate from a stability
standpoint.
 PWR turbine cycle loop is separate from
the primary loop so the water in the
secondary loop is not contaminated