Nuclear Reactors

In the most severe reactor accident, the fuel will melt and, due to radioactive decay heat, will continue to be very hot. In fact, it will be hot enough to melt through the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel (several inches of steel), and possibly melt/burn through the concrete floor of the reactor building and get into the soil beneath the building. This is what is referred to as the China syndrome, the idea being that the molten mass of fuel is heading toward China on the other side of the earth as it melts through the vessel, concrete, and then soil and rock below the reactor building.

The Chicago Bears, Soldier Field

i think nuclear power is awesome

If you mean energy produced by nuclear reactors, then "heat" and "light" would be the answers (Just think of the sun)

Fast Breeder Reactors typically use a combination of plutonium-239 and uranium-238 as fuel. This type of reactor produces more fissile material than it consumes, making it an efficient way to generate nuclear power.

downtime is 7.9 % and average availability is 92.1 % according to the US Dept. of Energy

It could be, but I guess the extra costs would be too high for a commercial plant

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That depends on what part you entered and how long you remained there. Only inside the actual core itself would the dose rate be high enough to kill you "instantly", even in the containment building itself of a properly functioning reactor the shielding is good enough that the dose rate is low enough that you could actually live there many weeks before the accumulated dose was large enough to begin to cause radiation sickness, anywhere else in the reactor facility the dose rate is so low that it is not even conclusively proven that remaining there as long as you like would give you a dose large enough to detectably shorten your life (but they do monitor workers and if their total accumulated radiation dose exceeds a specified level the company is required to either move them to equivalent work that will not expose them or give them paid vacation for specified time periods).

When operating, a nuclear power plant needs about 750,000 gallons of water per minute!

When being shut down (as in the case of an emergency) the cooling operation requires about 25,000 gallons per minute.

It is a robot that is used in radioactive areas and can carry over 200lbs. it is used to remove nuclear reactors.

The first nuclear reactor used for peaceful purposes was that in Russia (June 1954) and is called Oninsk nuclear power plant. It is the first in the world to generate electricity for an electric power grid system. It produced around 5 megawatts of electric power.

for pressurized light water reactor type, as an example, the nuclear reactor components are

* Reactor vessel (that contains the nuclear fuel and surrounded with water and contains control rod for power control and for safety) * reactor coolant pump * steam generator * reactor pressurizer

* piping out of the vessel to the pressurizer, from pressurizer to steam generator, from steam generator to reactor coolant pump, and from pump back to the reactor vessel.

Firstly by design. The basic configuration and nuclear characteristics of the reactor should include things like having a negative temperature coefficient, so that if the temperature rises the reactivity decreases, giving an inherent degree of stability. The Chernobyl RBMK reactors had a positive coefficient, which didn't help when they lost control. The pressure vessel and the whole primary circuit needs to be made strong enough to withstand any predicted pressure surge, and to be made to the best possible metallurgical standards with all sections crack detected and all welds thoroughly examined. Then the systems analysts have to check through every aspect of design and draw up fault trees so that every possible fault is analysed and must be found to have a very low probability of failure, if necessary additional safety must be built in with additional control and instrumentation as required.

Then operation and maintenance is very important, adequate procedures must be drawn up, vetted by experienced engineers, and must be followed by well trained staff. Safety systems protecting the reactor must never be vetoed (as at Chernobyl).

The whole aspect of the above must be thoroughly vetted by the licensing authority, in the US this is the NRC, and they must have the power to withold a licence to operate if they think it necessary.

This is a very condensed explanation of a process that takes years of work to complete, and is in fact ongoing through the life of the plant.

Yes, but it would not be used in a pure form, because it would be too concentrated for a power reactor. In the UK and France plutonium has been used in what is called MOX (Mixed Oxide) Fuel, where plutonium and uranium oxides are mixed to make fuel with roughly the same fissile content as enriched uranium fuel. I don't believe this technique has been used yet in the US,where spent fuel processing is not in operation so the plutonium is not being separated to make it available. However there may be plutonium available from ex-military stocks, and this could be used if required to supplement the amount of U-235 available.

Yes, nuclear power plant can be shut down.

This was a steam/water leak in a steam generator, probably brought on by inadequate chemistry control in the secondary water side. Faced with the prospect of the cost of replacing the steam generators, the owners decided to shut the plant permanently, and it has been partly decommissioned with all the fuel removed.

As of 2021, there are 93 commercial nuclear reactors operating in 28 states in the United States. These nuclear reactors are spread across 56 nuclear power plants.

•The major disadvantages of air-lift fermenters are

- high energy requirements

- excessive foaming

- cell damage due to bubble bursting; particularly with animal cell culture

A nuclear bomb contains two parts. The Uranium and Hydrogen. When on first impact the hydrogen canister explodes trigering a reaction happening in the uranium which explodes at heats of over 3000 Degree Celcius.

the nuclear reactor makes steam wich drives turbines wich drive generators that make the electricity

He was in charge of a team which first demonstrated that a nuclear chain reaction could be produced. This was in December 1942 and was done under the Manhattan Project during WW2, under very secret security at the time, in Chicago. The techniques were applied to the much larger reactors built at Hanford Wa which produced the required plutonium for weapons. None of these reactors produced electricity.