Nuclear Reactors

You don't need nuclear power, energy can be generated using other methods, fossil fuels, hydro-electric etc.

However nuclear power does reduce a countries reliance on fossil fuel, which can be particularly important for countries with few fossil fuel reserves of their own. Nuclear power stations do not release CO2 into the atmosphere so do not directly contribute to global warming. Many countries are looking at an investment in nuclear power to help meet CO2 emissions targets.

Nuclear power stations are also required to make plutonium for nuclear weapons. Plutonium does not occur naturally and can only be made from uranium in nuclear reactors. Any country with a nuclear weapons program will have a civilian nuclear power industry for this reason.

It's greener and safer than fossil fuel power plants, but produces far more energy than wind or solar power plants.

For example, coal power plants produce the same amount of radiation as Three Mile Island every few days, and produce extremely large amounts of particulate pollution, which kill the same number of people as Chernobyl every few weeks.

Wind turbines cost about the same amount as nuclear plants, per watt, but to produce the same amount of energy, they require 300 times as much land.

Spent uranium is usually reclaimed in thermal-neutron reactors.

This process is possible only in CANDU reactors and other similar types, which use heavey water as a moderator (a moderator slows neutrons to a speed at which they are more likely to be absorbed by a nuclei, as the neutrons impact the molecules of the moderator and are slowed).

Normal water (usually refered to as light water when dealing with nuclear reactors) is H20, H being a hydrogen atom, which does slow the neutrons, but it also sometimes absorbs neutrons that impact it. This means less neutrons are getting through to the reactor core, which means once a fuel bundle has less than a certain percentage of fissionable material left in it (idealy it should be about 5% for commercial reactors, that it, before it has been used. It can only continue to be productive in a light-water reactor above about 1- 2%.), not enough neutrons are getting through to keep the reactor critical (the point where enough neutrons are being released from fissions to sustain a chain reaction), and the fuel is discarded.

Heavy water, on the other hand, is D2O, with two deuterium atoms (an isotope of hydrogen which has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, instead of the regular 1 and 1). This means that the hydrogen atoms already have an extra neutron, making them less likely to absrob the neutrons they are supposed to be slowing down.

Thus more neutrons are getting through, and there are enough to cause fission in a significant portion of the remaining fissionable material, allowing such reactors to run on depleted uranium.

The energy in a nuclear reactor comes from nuclear reactions, specifically fission reactions where the nucleus of an atom is split into smaller parts. This process releases a large amount of energy in the form of heat, which is then used to produce steam to turn turbines and generate electricity.

The Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor is mainly used to produce radioisotopes for medical use (nuclear medicine). It also performs irradiation services and is used for neutron beam research. Although the fission process does generate heat, the facility is not used to generate power mainly due to political reasons. Australia made the decision not to build power reactors, though there was at one time a proposal to build one at Jervis Bay.

Australia has a large amount of cheap black coal and generates most of it's power in coal burning power stations. The black coal is slightly more efficient than most of the world's brown coal.

The energy output of a nuclear reactor can vary greatly depending on its size and design. However, on average, a nuclear reactor can generate around 1-2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity in one day.

Mines, usually it is uranium, with only 0.7% (aproximately) U-235 (the isotope that is used for fission), the rest is U-238, known as depleted uranium, or natural uranium. Then it enriched to about 3-5% U-235, unless it is used in a CANDU reactor, in which case it can almost literaly be used straight out of the ground.

Using control rods that obsorb neutrons, and can be gradualy raised or lowered into the core. In emergencies, "neutron poisons" are used, which almost instantly stop most fission within the core.

Plasma is the form of matter found in lightning bolts, nuclear reactors, and stars. It is a state of matter that consists of charged particles, such as electrons and ions, and is characterized by its high energy and conductivity.

how the nuclear reactor can work?

A nuclear reactor is a system which generates a nuclear fission reaction. A nuclear reaction is a self-sustaining reaction where the output of one stage is the input of the next stage. Therefore, if there is enough fuel, the reaction will continue indefinitely.

The most common type of fission reaction is a Uranium 236 reaction. Nuclear fission involves splitting an atom into smaller atom(s). In a U236 reaction, Uranium 235 is the fuel. A neutron is propelled, which strikes the nucleus of a Uranium 235 atom, creating a U236 atom. U236 is highly unstable, and undergoes radioactive decay. This means the U235 atom turns into a Krypton atom, and a Barium atom, plus 2 extra neutrons and some energy. This energy is generally heat, and is absorbed by nearby water, which boils and turns a turbine.

The two neutrons continue the reaction by hitting another U235 atom (each).

There are other types of nuclear reactions as well, but the principle is the same. The output is generally atoms of different atomic mass, energy, and some other byproduct which will continue the reaction (e.g. an alpha particle - a Helium nucleus, or a neutron). In nuclear fission, the atom byproducts have a lower atomic mass.

In nuclear fusion, the atom byproducts have a higher atomic mass (since multiple atoms are fused together). Nuclear fusion is the basic power plant in the core of the sun (combining Hydrogen atoms into Helium, or Helium into Carbon, etc.). The byproduct here is the energy that we see as light.

Slow neutron fission chain reaction.

Most reactors use uranium fuel enriched slightly to about 3-4 percent U-235, in the form of uranium dioxide UO2. Some older reactors used metallic natural uranium, while some other reactors use plutonium or a plutonium-uranium mix as fuel.

Plasma is highly ionized atoms. This results in extremely energetic ions, and these ions carry an electrostatic charge. The tokamak is a container with magnetic fields for boundaries. The plasma is a moving group of electrostatic charges, and moving charges create magnetic fields. The magnetic field thus created interacts with the magnetic field set up in the tokamak to deflect and thus confine the charged plasma.

Nuclear power plants can generate electricity by using nuclear reactions to heat water and produce steam, which then drives turbines to generate electricity. This source of energy is generally considered low-carbon and can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil fuel sources. Additionally, nuclear power can provide a reliable and steady source of electricity, contributing to energy security and grid stability.

The development of nuclear weapons was a collaborative effort by several scientists working on the Manhattan Project during World War II. The key figures involved in this project were J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and the physicist Albert Einstein who wrote to President Roosevelt urging the research on nuclear weapons.

As of 2021, India has 22 operational nuclear reactors across seven nuclear power plants. India has plans to increase its nuclear energy capacity through the construction of additional reactors in the coming years.

Nuclear centrifuges are machines used to enrich uranium by separating isotopes. The centrifugal force causes the heavier U-238 isotopes to collect on the outer rim, while the lighter U-235 isotopes concentrate towards the center, allowing for enrichment. This technology is a critical step in the production of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

Nuclear power creates jobs across various sectors, including engineering, construction, maintenance, operations, research, and support services. Specific job titles may include nuclear engineer, reactor operator, radiation protection technician, and waste management specialist. Additionally, nuclear power plants create indirect jobs in industries such as manufacturing, transportation, and supply chain.

No, the neutrons produced in nuclear reactors don't travel anywhere near the speed of light. Let's look at this a bit. In the "standard" fission reactor, fissile nuclear fuel is "started up" and the neutron chain reaction begins. Neutrons are produced during atomic fission events, and these neutrons are sometimes called "fission energy" or "prompt" or "fast" neutrons. They are the free neutrons that appear as the result of the fission event. And they're moving pretty darn quick when they're "blown out" of the fissioning nucleus. But they're not moving anywhere near the speed of light. The Boltzman distribution (a fancy way of speaking about the range of energies at which the fast neutrons appear), has a strong peak at close to 2 MeV (20 TJ/kg). That translates into a speed of 28,000 km/s. The speed of light is some 299,792 km/s as we've defined it, and that puts the speed of those fast neutrons at roughly 10% the speed of light.

I make it 104 on the NRC website (operating units, that is)

For water reactors the danger would be mainly from the high temperature, escaping water would flash to steam and scald anyone nearby.

CO2 cooled reactors would also present high temperature and risk of asphyxiation.

There might be some radioactivity, but not a huge amount as failed fuel would have been removed before it became high enough to be dangerous.

Of course if a Loss of Coolant (LOCA) occurred resulting in fuel failure, there might be more activity released, but design is aimed at preventing a LOCA, even in extreme cases such as an earthquake.

Uranium is the primary element used in nuclear reactors for energy generation. When uranium atoms undergo nuclear fission, they release a significant amount of energy that can be harnessed for various applications, including electricity generation.

It is used as a moderator. Natural uranium will not undergo nuclear fission by itself because neutrons emitted by fissioning U-235 tend to be absorbed by U-238. However, if the neutrons can be slowed down, it turns out that U-238 is less likely to eat them, and enough are available to fission U-235 and keep the reaction going. Graphite has the useful property that it can slow neutrons down without eating them, so if you embed uranium lumps in a graphite matrix with appropriate spacing, the neutrons which get into the graphite will be slowed down, and when they finally hit a lump of uranium they are likely to be taken up by U-235 and cause fission.

Any light element with a sufficient distaste for neutrons can be used as a moderator. Heavy water (deuterium oxide) works nicely. Natural water has slightly too high an appetite for neutrons to work well, but if the concentration of U-235 is raised a bit, you can make a reactor with natural water moderator. That is how power reactors work in the USA and most other countries.

The cost to run a nuclear reactor can vary depending on factors like the size of the reactor, maintenance requirements, and operating expenses. Generally, it can cost millions to tens of millions of dollars annually to operate a nuclear reactor.

It's all about the nuclear fission byproducts. When fission occurs, a couple of neutrons are produced. But what happened to the rest of the uranium atom? The bulk of its mass remains as fission fragments. The fission fragments are radioactive byproducts of the event, and they in turn have to decay (radioactively) into something that is stable. This can take several transitions, and the decay rates vary from fractions of a second to millions of years. Spent fuel is highly radioactive ("hot"), and it has a variety of long-lived radionuclides in it. Nuclear fuel is seal up (welded inside) cladding to "keep it in one place" when fuel plates or fuel rods are produced. The spent fuel has all this highly radioactive and nasty-as-heck stuff inside the fuel plates or fuel rods. The radioactive byproducts are radioactive (and highly so!) for a long, long, long time. Aside from the possibility of radioactive contamination that might occur in a nuclear accident, the long-term storage of spent fuel is a major headache. The length of time it will take for the stuff to "cool off" radioactively, once the (fairly simple) physics of radioactive decay is comprehended, will leave the understanding person ill. Use the link to the Wikipedia article on long-lived fission products and skim it. Note what is produced and the half-lives of the stuff. It's disconcerting.