Nuclear Fission and Reactors: Easwari Engineering College

Electronic Hobby Club
EASWARI
ENGINEERING
COLLEGE
(AUTONOMOUS)
RAMAPURAM CHENNAI
Nuclear Fission and

Fusion Reactors 01
Sustainable Development
Goals and Targets
NUCLEAR REACTORS | 12/06/2021

Electronic Hobby Club NUCLEAR REACTORS | 12/06/2021
Report Contents
Part 1: Fundamentals and How Part 2: Fission Reactors Part 3: Fusion Reactors
does it work
• Nuclear Force and Enegy • Fission- definition • Fusion- definition

• Binding Energy and Mass • LWR and PWR • MCF and ICF
defect • The breeder Reactor • He-3 Power 02
Electronic Hobby Club TITLE OF THE REPORT | DATE OF THE REPORT
Various Power Res

24.7%
sectors in India
Coal
52.9%
Hydro
12.2%
From the Pie chart it is clear that only

2% of electricity is produced from Nuclear
1.9%
nuclear power plants Gas
6.6% Lignite
03 1.7%
Part 1:
MASS DEFECT AND BINDING
How Does it
ENERGY
12/06/2021
Work!?
04
The sources of nuclear energy are fission, fusion and

radioactive decay. Nuclear fission occurs when certain types
Mass Defect of heavy atoms become unstable and split into two medium
mass parts, and nuclear fusion occurs when light atoms are
and Binding forced together to make heavier atoms.
Energy The nucleus contains protons and neutrons inspite of large

repulsive force the nucleus stays together because of the
Strong Nuclear Force.
When the mass of a nucleus is measured by mass

spectrography its mass is found to be less than the mass of
the protons and neutrons in it this is called mass defect. This
05 mass is converted into energy called Binding Energy.
mActual=m rest+m Energy
2
m=E/c
2
mEnergy =BE/c
06
Definition
It is the amount of energy required to remove one nucleon from a

nucleus.
Formulae
Average Binding BE = [Zmp + N mn - Ma] c

A
2
Energy Binding energy curve
07
Part 2:
The Reactors
NUCLEAR REACTORS 12/06/2021 08

Nuclear Fission
subdivision of a heavy atomic nucleus, such

as that of uranium or plutonium, into two
fragments of roughly equal mass. The
process is accompanied by the release of a
large amount of energy.
09
Nuclear fission
141 92 1
Ba + Kr + 3 n + Q
235 1 236 56 36 0
92
U + 0n U*
92 140 94 1
Xe 54+ Sr + 382 n + Q
0
10
Components of 1 Fuel 2 Moderators
a fission The % of U in fuel must be

enriched to keep the fission
The probability of a fast moving
neutron hitting anoter U atom is less
reactor continuing. so moderators are used to slow them

down.
3 Coolant 4 Shielding
used to remove heat from the nuclear reactor core and transfer it to shielding is used to stop any kind of
electrical generators
11
Some Main types of

Reactors
There are many types of fission reactors here are few
examples.,
• Pressurized water reactor

• Boiling water reactor
• Fast Neutron Reactor
12
Pressurized Water
Reactor
PWR has fuel assemblies of 200-300 rods each,
arranged vertically in the core, and a large reactor
would have about 150-250 fuel assemblies with 80-100
tonnes of uranium.
Water in the reactor core reaches about 325°C, hence it must be kept under about 150 times atmospheric
pressure to prevent it from boiling. Pressure is maintained by steam in a pressurised.
13
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Boiling Water
Reactor
A BWR similar to PWR except that there is only a
single circuit in which the water is at lower pressure
(about 75 times atmospheric pressure) so that it boils in
the core at about 285°C.
The reactor is designed to operate with 12-15% of the

water in the top part of the core as steam, and hence
with less moderating effect and thus efficiency there.
BWR units can operate in a load-following mode more
readily than PWRs.
14
Fast Neutron or
Breeder Reactor
A breeder Reactor is one that converts non-fissionable
(Fertile) material to Fissionable material.
238 1 239 -
92
U+ n
0
Pu
94
+ 2e
239 1 1
94
Pu + n Fission Products + 3 n
0 0
Similarly, Thorium will be converted to U-233 and on the

absorption of another neutron it will be converted to
fission products
15
Part 3:
18
Nuclear Fusion
Fusion is the process by which the sun and
other stars generate light and heat
where energy is produced by smashing together light atoms. It

is the opposite reaction of fission, where heavy isotopes are
Nuclear Fusion split apart.
Fusion, the nuclear reaction that powers the Sun and the stars,
is a potential source of safe, non-carbon emitting and virtually
limitless energy.
It doesn't occur in room temperature.
There is very less way in which this technology could affect

us unlike nuclear waster from fission reactors and carbon
from coal plants.
0902
Creating Fusion Power
Unlike in Sun in Earth they are much harder to achieve.

Fusion fuel – different isotopes of hydrogen – must be heated to
extreme temperatures of the order of 50 million degrees Celsius,
and must be kept stable under intense pressure, hence dense enough
and confined for long enough to allow the nuclei to fuse.
18
Nuclear Fusion Reactors

At present, two main experimental
approaches are being studied:
• Magnetic confinement This method

uses strong magnetic fields to contain
the hot plasma.
• Inertial confinement: involves

compressing a small pellet containing
fusion fuel to extremely high densities
using strong lasers or particle beams.
1 Helium-3 Power Generation
In current nuclear fusion reactors, the hydrogen isotopes tritium and deuterium are used as the fuel, with
atomic energy released when their nuclei fuse to create helium and a neutron.
However, the so-termed "fast" neutrons released by nuclear fusion reactors fuelled by tritium and
deuterium lead to significant energy loss and are extremely difficult to contain. One potential solution may
be to use helium-3.
But the problem is that the availability of He-3 is very low in Earth and the ones from Sun are blocked by
Earth's magnetic field, But our neighbour moon doesn't have an atmosphere, Therefore it might have much
He-3 due to the solar winds.
Website https://www.explainingthefuture.
References com/helium3.html
Nptel lectures
Thank you! Text book
World Nuclear.org
Nuclear energy
Any Questions?!?!
References
- Charles.D Ferguson
29

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Electronic Hobby Club

Nuclear Fission and

NUCLEAR REACTORS | 12/06/2021

• Nuclear Force and Enegy • Fission- definition • Fusion- definition

Various Power Res

From the Pie chart it is clear that only

MASS DEFECT AND BINDING

The sources of nuclear energy are fission, fusion and

and Binding forced together to make heavier atoms.

Energy The nucleus contains protons and neutrons inspite of large

When the mass of a nucleus is measured by mass

mActual=m rest+m Energy

It is the amount of energy required to remove one nucleon from a

Average Binding BE = [Zmp + N mn - Ma] c

Energy Binding energy curve

NUCLEAR REACTORS 12/06/2021 08

subdivision of a heavy atomic nucleus, such

Components of 1 Fuel 2 Moderators

a fission The % of U in fuel must be

reactor continuing. so moderators are used to slow them

Some Main types of

• Pressurized water reactor

pressure to prevent it from boiling. Pressure is maintained by steam in a pressurised.

The reactor is designed to operate with 12-15% of the

Similarly, Thorium will be converted to U-233 and on the

where energy is produced by smashing together light atoms. It

Nuclear Fusion split apart.

There is very less way in which this technology could affect

Creating Fusion Power

Unlike in Sun in Earth they are much harder to achieve.

Nuclear Fusion Reactors

• Magnetic confinement This method

• Inertial confinement: involves

1 Helium-3 Power Generation

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