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What step was taken to insure the nuclear reactor was safe in chernobyl?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
The RBMK reactors at Chernobyl were probably the most unsafe reactors ever designed and built. They should never have been built.
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
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How energy efficient are steam generators?
Steam generators are quite efficient because it does rely on traditional energy source such as oil or coal. However, because it uses nuclear power, there is always a threat of a nuclear meltdown unless absolute precautions are taken.
Why is burden not used in protection ct?
Generally accuracy at low current values isn't important for protective functions. The burden is taken into account when looking at the saturation curve and available short circuit current to insure the CT doesn't saturate during fault conditions.
How do nuclear reactors negatively affect the ecosystems?
Unless they explode, The only negative effects is waste which is taken and buried at secure locations. And the waste generates is 79% Lower than the waste generated by coal powerplants.
Why did Enrico Fermi invent the nuclear reactor?
This was part of the Manhattan Project in WW2 to develop the atomic bomb. You must remember that at that time science was being pushed hard to come up with answers in order to understand basic nuclear facts, with the aim of making a bomb. Nobody even knew if it was possible, but the US was afraid that Nazi Germany might get there first, so every avenue was looked at for answers. It was known that enriched uranium, in fact nearly pure U235 would be needed, and this was done by using the gaseous diffusion process with uranium hexafluoride. The other route, only known theoretically, would be to produce plutonium 239 by irradiating uranium 238 in a neutron flux. The way to get enough neutron flux was to produce a continuous controlled neutron chain reaction, and Fermi was the scientist who had the best ideas how to do this. The first 'pile' as it was called was the result, built in Chicago as an experiment to prove the theory. This used a graphite moderator and metallic natural uranium fuel. It worked as predicted, but to get enough plutonium something much bigger and more powerful was needed. The same type of reactors but more powerful were therefore built at Hanford in Washington State and these produced the plutonium used in the second atomic bomb (Nagasaki) The following para is taken from Wikipedia article on Manhattan Project: The first major scientific hurdle of the project was solved on December 2, 1942, beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, where a team led by Enrico Fermi, for whom Fermilab is named, initiated the first artificial self sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental nuclear reactor named Chicago Pile-1. A coded phone call from Compton saying, "The Italian navigator [referring to Fermi] has landed in the new world, the natives are friendly" to Conant in Washington, D.C., brought news of the experiment's success.
Current and voltage readings taken on the far right of a meters scale provide greater?
Current and voltage readings taken on the far right of a meter's scale provide greater inaccuracy that readings taken from mid scale on the meter.
What precautions should be taken before the nuclear disaster?
People living within the nearest periphery of a nuclear plant, should be taught about the precautions to be taken against the impending risk from the nuclear reactors of the plants. By this way, Japan was able to minimize loss of human lives during their recent nuclear reactor emission. Using of masks, going underground to evade poisonous gases,spraying chemicals to neutralize the effect of nuclear reactor emissions are few of the steps generally undertaken during an eventuality.
Why did the chernobyl nuclear disaster occur?
it was april 26, 1986, it occured because of an attempt was made to insert the control rods into the reactor core quickly, after having taken them out, and an effect was the the core structure of graphite blocks had changed and would not allow the control rods to push into the holes of the blocks, leading to rapid heat production,and the explosion.
What could happen if a nuclear reactor explodes?
It is not possible for a nuclear reactor to explode in the way a nuclear bomb does, because the fissionable part of the fuel is spread out through the reactor in a matrix, in a bomb a critical mass has to be formed very quickly to make the explosion happen. What is possible is some sort of failure in the reactor's pressure circuit, releasing the coolant and causing fuel to melt thus leaking radioactivity to the environment. This is what happened at Chernobyl, a steam pressure surge blew the top of the reactor off, and some fuel was ejected, then the remains of the reactor caught fire (it was graphite moderated) and released even more activity. It must be emphasised however that this did not happen during normal operation. It was due to an experiment that was badly planned and carried out, together with some design faults that had not been assessed thoroughly enough. PWR's and BWR's used in the US and elsewhere are very different. A massive disruptive failure of the pressure vessel can be discounted because of design overkill and thorough inspection before use. Some smaller coolant circuit failures are deemed credible and are allowed for in safety studies. The main protection is that the reactor has secondary containment, this is the large dome that is characteristic of reactors seen from outside the plant.(Chernobyl did not have this). In the Three Mile Island incident coolant did leak out through a valve that the operators did not know was open. This shows the necessity of better instrumentation and this has been taken into account in new designs. No significant radiation exposure happened to the nuclear staff or the public nearby, though the reactor was damaged and has never operated since.
How did Chernobyl cope with the nuclear accident?
The reactor that had the explosion in entombed. The actual structure is problematical because it will not last nearly long enough. The other reactors have remained in use since the accident. The area around Chernobyl was, and remains, evacuated. A broader area has been taken out of use for various purposes, such as agriculture. Forest fires have to be carefully dealt with because the fires put radioactive materials into the atmosphere. People in the area have health problems that require attention, and the people who have not developed diseases need to be checked carefully for them.
How much education does it take to be an operating engineer?
It depends what you are operating (et. operating a coffee machine to operating a nuclear reactor), but you are supposed to have taken electrical, or mechanical engineering, according to the machine.
What was the cause of the accident at the chernobyl nuclear power plant?
The worst nuclear power accident in history, which occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, will affect, in one form or another, 20 percent of the republic's population (2.2 million people). On April 26, 1986, at 1:23:40 a.m., during unauthorized experiments by the operators in which safety systems were deliberately circumvented in order to learn more about the plant's operation, one of the four reactors rapidly overheated and its water coolant "flashed" into steam. The hydrogen formed from the steam reacted with the graphite moderator to cause two major explosions and a fire. The explosions blew apart the 1,000 ton (907 metric ton) lid of the reactor, and released radioactive debris high into the atmosphere. It is estimated that 3.5 percent of the reactor's fuel and 10 percent of the graphite reactor itself was emitted into the atmosphere. Human error and what-caused-the-chernobyl-accidentfeatures (such as a positive void coefficient type of reactor, use of graphite in construction, and lack of a containment building) are generally cited as the causes of the accident. Thirty-one people died from trying to stop the fires. More than 240 others sustained severe radiation sickness. Eventually 150,000 people living near the reactor were relocated; some of whom may never be allowed to return home. Fallout from the explosions, containing radioactive isotope cesium-137, was carried by the winds westward across Europe.The problems created by the Chernobyl disaster are overwhelming and continue today. Particularly troubling is the fact that by 1990-1991, a five-fold increase had occurred in the rate of thyroid cancers in children in Belarus. A significant rise in general morbidity has also taken place among children in the heaviest-hit areas of Gomel and Mogilev.
When was the first time an operating nuclear reactor flew on an airplane and what type of reactor and model of airplane were used in this flight?
The Air Force did a little bit of stuff with nuclear-powered aircraft in the 1950s. They built a couple of nuclear-powered J58 turbojets and ran them to nearly-full throttle, but never installed them in aircraft. They also mounted a reactor in a B-36 bomber, but never connected it to the engines. As far as I can tell they didn't put any fuel in the reactor - they just put the reactor vessel in the plane and went flying. In the end, the amount of shielding it would have taken to keep the crew from dying in mid-flight was impossible to put in a flyable aircraft.In the early to mid 1960s they also talked about building nuclear-powered civil airliners. Back then EVERYTHING was going to be nuclear-powered - cars, trucks, ships, houses...The Navy had a lot more luck with nuclear reactors. A ship can accommodate the shielding, so several classes of ship have had nuclear power. All our current carriers and subs are nuclear. The Navy also built nine nuclear-powered cruisers to accompany carriers, all of which were decommissioned at the end of the Cold War. There were some nuclear civil ships too - the US, Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union all built nuclear cargo ships, and the Russians built nine nuclear icebreakers. Of all these ships, three cargo ships have been decommissioned, the German-owned one has been converted to diesel power, and six of the nine icebreakers are still in service.
What is the meaning of Juno Reactor in the bands name?
The name comes from Ben Watkins' girlfriend. There was a 70-foot-long concrete structure that Watkins' girlfriend made called Juno Reactor. The name was taken from this. Juno is an ancient Roman goddess. A reactor a structure in which fissile material can be made to undergo a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear reaction with the consequent release of energy. The band asserts that the name "stands as a powerhouse of ancient religions".
Limitation for Control rod in absorbing neutrons?
Control rods are designed usually to be effectively 'black' which means they absorb all incident slow neutrons, by having enough boron or other material in them to do this. The nuclear physics effect that this has on the reactor will then depend on the geometry of the arrangement, ie how many rods are provided in what sort of array and in how many places in the reactor compared with the array of fuel assemblies. This is decided by the nuclear design of the reactor, there are now adequate physics design programs to calculate what is required for a particular reactor. For safety the control rod capacity must be enough to always be able to shutdown the reactor and hold it down with an adequate margin, whatever the reactor state, which varies with refuelling and burnup when neutron absorbing fission products are taken into account. So it is quite a complicated calculation but one that can be done with certainty.
What do many leaders consider to be the reason for the disaster at Chernobyl?
It is not a matter of 'consider', because the events leading up to the disaster are exactly known. The complete story is long and technical, but very briefly, what happened in 1986 was that reactor #4 had been operating for two years and was undergoing maintenance checks and monitoring of the procedures to be used in case of emergency. The monitoring and safety procedures were faulty and in the process of testing, the nuclear core overheated. In the ensuing panic, measures taken to solve this made the problems even worse. This resulted in an explosion and meltdown at reactor #4 that spewed over 200 times the amount of radiation released at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What is a graphite reactor?
A reactor using graphite as the moderator. This has the advantage that natural non enriched uranium can be used. The first reactors built in the WW2 project to produce plutonium were graphite, these were at Hanford. The idea was taken up in the UK and in France and pressurized reactors using CO2 coolant were developed, though these are now all obsolete. The trouble with graphite is it has a limited lifespan in the reactor, gradually eroding and so losing mechanical integrity. It also is a possible fire hazard, as graphite is flammable at temperatures reachable during a nuclear accident (as evidenced by the Chernobyl accident), particularly in oxygen and hydrogen-rich environments found inside such sealed reactors. Nevertheless in the UK the advanced gas cooled reactor was developed which used enriched fuel and higher gas temperature. These were eventually made to work quite well, but turned out too expensive to build compared with the simpler PWR and BWR types which now predominate.
When year and where did the wrost nuclear accident occura nuclear meltdown?
NRX was a heavy water moderated, light water cooled, nuclear research reactor at the Canadian Chalk River Laboratories, which experienced one of the world's first major reactor accidents on 12 December 1952. The reactor began operation on 22 July 1947 under the National Research Council of Canada, and was taken over by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) shortly before the 1952 accident. The accident was cleaned up and the reactor restarted within two years. NRX operated for 45 years, being shut down permanently on 8 April 1993[3]. It is currently undergoing decommissioning at the Chalk River Laboratories site.
