Nuclear Reactors

I have not heard that one. For any design the water capacity is fixed by the size of the vessel and the external circuit. I suppose it may mean that when designing the plant it is best to have more volume available for the primary circuit than the minimum possible, so that there is more thermal capacity to absorb heat in some accident conditions. You are unlikely to want to build more volume into the pressure vessel itself as it would be expensive to do so. The above saying would also tie in with providing more primary/secondary loops, ie four instead of three, to provide better redundancy........ Or maybe it is a phrase from an old Saturday Night Live skit about some unqualified people left in charge of a nuclear reactor after being given the advice "Just remember, You can't put too much water in a nuclear reactor". (The joke is that they debate the two opposite meanings of the phrase).

Uranium-235 and Plutonium-239 are two possible fuel sources for a nuclear reactor. These isotopes are fissile materials that undergo nuclear fission reactions to generate heat in a controlled manner for producing electricity.

104. See www.nrc.gov

It is an energy releasing device, it releases the nuclear energy in U-235 which is produced by fission of the nucleus. In the natural state U-235 does not fission, or rather it does do so but only to a tiny extent which is trivial in terms of energy. The nuclear reactor is essentially a device to promote fission of U-235, and it does this by having a fuel arrangement which will go critical and form a chain reaction, producing heat.

chernobyl

The primary materials used as fuels in nuclear reactors are enriched uranium and plutonium. Enriched uranium is the most common fuel used, while plutonium is often formed as a byproduct during nuclear fission. Other potential fuel materials include thorium and mixed oxides (MOX) fuel, which combine uranium and plutonium.

Yes it is. it would take a long period of time but yes. i am working on one myself.as i have no life

Zirconium melting point is 1855 deg C (fuel cladding). Uranium dioxide melts at 2800 deg C. Thus the fuel cladding could only melt in dry conditions, normally it is submerged in water at much lower temperature. Consideration of fuel pin center temperature during power operation has to be a design factor, as UO2 is not a good conductor of heat.

Links are provided to the Three Mile Island (TMI) website and to Exelon Corporation's website. Exelon is contracted to run TMI, and they have career opportunities posted on their web site. Both websites have contact information posted. Good luck.

Proper matianance, management, insulation, and protection.

There is often small leakage from the fuel in reactor cores. A fuel bundle is made of 64 stainless steel tubes filled with fuel pellets, each tube about 12 feet long. The tubes are held together with steel straps and forgings to make the bundle. A typical reactor has 160 to 225 of these bundles. About one third of the fuel is replaced each refueling outage and the remaining fuel is moved to a new position in the core to get an even "burn" of the fissionable material in the fuel rod. This means that most fuel rods are in the core for three cycles. Some develop pinhole leaks which are detectable via radiochemical analysis of the reactor coolant. There is no nuclear or personnel danger from this but plants usually will reduce power in the area of identified leakers to minimize the leakage. Fuel manufacturers continue to work to find designs which will not leak.

The average man cannot "help" make nuclear power. Once the plant is online, there is a crew hired by the owner of the plant to run it. I guess you could apply for any job openings at your nearest plant.

This is usually credited to Eugene P. Wigner, Leo A. Ohlinger, Gale J. Young, and Alvin M. Weinberg in their US Patent #2,736,696 titled Reactor, applied for August 29, 1945 and granted February 28, 1956. While this patent applies specifically to a heavy water moderated, light water cooled type of power reactor and the vast majority of modern power reactors are derived the the later light water moderated, light water cooled type of power reactor designed by Hyman G. Rickover for the nuclear submarine USS Nautilus, this patent and its inventors have precedence over the work of Rickover. Weinberg specifically worked with Rickover and contributed greatly to the success of Rickover's work with nuclear power reactors.