The nuclear

reactor
By Rares Trifan and Luca Delazerro
Atoms.
• The first times Atoms were mentioned was in
450 BC when Democritus, a greek philosopher.
He introduced the idea of an atom and in
1808, a scientist named John Dalton when he
thought about the idea that everything and
everyone was made of atoms. He is often
called „The Grandfather of Atomic Theory”
• An atom is a particle of matter that uniquely
defines an achemical element. An atom
consists of a central nucleus that is usually
surrounded by one or more electrons. The
nucleus is charged, and contains one or more
relatively heavy particles known as protons
and neutrons.
Nuclear Fission Creates Heat

• A nuclear reactor is driven by the splitting of atoms, a process

called fission, where a particle (a neutron) is fired at an
atom, which then fissions into two smaller atoms and some
additional neutrons. The fissioning of atoms in the chain
reaction also releases a large amount of energy as heat.
• It should be mentioned that only about 1% of atoms actually
manage to get split apart using fission, but this is still enough
to create a lot of electricity.
• Nuclear reactors often use „Uranium” (237) as fuel. The
uranium is processed and stacked in small rods called Control
Rods. Typically, inside a reactor, there’s at least 200
control rods. Inside the reactor „vessel”, these rods are
inserted into water which acts as a coolant but also a
moderator. When the control rods are withdrawn from the
reactor, reactivity increases and when they are put inside the
core, reactivity decreases. This was not the case of the
Chernobyl accident due to the type of nuclear reactor being
faulty and the control rods that were used had graphite tips
which increased reactivity.
The Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1)

• Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the world's first

artificial nuclear reactor, build on 2nd
November,1942. The secret development of
the reactor was the first major technical
achievement for the Manhattan Project, the
Allied effort to create atomic bombs during
World War II. The CP-1 was Developed by
the Metallurgical Laboratory at the
University of Chicago, it was built under the
west viewing stands of the original Stagg
Field. The reactor used natural uranium,
which required a very large amount of
material in order to reach criticality, along
with graphite used as a neutron moderator.
Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR)

• The reactor has a core inside of it. This

"core" creates heat. Then, the
pressurized water carries heat to steam
generator and in this generator, head
from the primary coolant vaporizes
water, producing steam. The steam is
carried to a main turbine, which turns on
the turbine generator. In turn, this
generator produced electricity. The
remaining steam is carried to the
condenser, where it is turned into water.
The water will be pumped out of the
condenser, reheated and then pumped
back into the steam generator.
Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)

• A Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) is a

type of water nuclear reactor that is
used for electrical power. It's the
second most used nuclear reactor,
after the PWR. The reactor heats
water, which turns to steam and then
drives it into the steam turbines. This
hot water exchanges the heat with a
lower pressure system water, which
will turn to steam and power on the
turbine. The first BWR was developed
in the mid-1950s.
Light Water Graphite-Moderated Reactor
(LWGR)
• The LWGR (light water graphite
reactor) has enriched fuel in
pressure tubes with a light water
coolant. These are surrounded by
graphite moderators. More often
referred to as the RBMK (this type
of reactor was used in the
Chernobyl accident, specifically the
RBMK 1000). In FBR (fast breeder
reactors) types, the fuel is a mix of
oxides of plutonium and uranium;
no moderator is used.
Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR)

• A Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) is a nuclear

reactor that uses fast neutron to generate
more nuclear fuels than they consume while
generating power, dramatically enhancing
the efficiency of the use of resources.
Nuclear fission by fast neutron causes the
increase in neutrons generated. In the early
21st century, all large power plants using
fast breeder reactors employed liquid-metal
fast breeder reactors, which convert
uranium-238 into the fissionable isotope
plutonium-239 by means of artificial
radioactive decay. The plutonium-239 is
then bombarded with high-speed neutrons.
Thank you for your
attention!
By Trifan Rares and Delazzero Luca