Nuclear fuel Definition and 32 Threads

Are spent fuel rods radioactive and are the spent fuel rods cooling pools discharging radioactive water (tritium) into the environment?

Hello, I am looking for a comprehensive resource (paper, book or any kind of document) that contains the most relevant properties of most nuclear fuels. To be more specific, the information i am looking for are thermophysical properties, chemical compatibility with other materials and...

I am trying to find the mass flow rate of coolant through a channel within a hexagonal nuclear fuel assembly. I am given the specific heat of the fluid, the coolant inlet and outlet temperatures, the total power produced by a single fuel pin, the diameter of the fuel pin, the length of the fuel...

Hi, I have some questions about nuclear fuel, I hope I could get some direction here. Firstly, based on research I've done it appears that spent fuel rods come out of the reactor around 5000 F, is this true? Secondly, if the previous statement is true how does the water in the fuel pool not get...

Let's say we have a cylindrical fuel pin with fissile material in the middle, followed by a gas gap and cladding material. It is being cooled by water on the outside. The temperature drop through the fissile material should be parabolic due to heat generation, and the temperature drops through...

Hi, I haven't studied much nuclear physics and would be very grateful if someone could answer a few basic questions I had about fission in the fuel rods on how the water is actually heated in the reactor core: 1) I don't know if I have this correct but is it that the way the water is heated in...

What powers a star?

Hello everyone! I have my first question in physics forum... When I read some reports I found those terms that can not be understood... 'BOC', 'EOC', 'BOEC', 'EOEC'... BOC and EOC are used frequently and I know those terms shortly but not exactly... but I can understand boec and eoec and...

Hi everyone! I'm near to get a physics degree. Always like me nuclear physics, how can energy be obtained by a little cuantity of matter... I want to ask you,if you know, which is the work/tasks of a physicist in a nuclear central (if they can work there :) ). I would like to be more...

Homework Statement Calculate how much free energy in 1kg of nuclear fuel, assuming the most common reaction at a nuclear plant is 235U + n ---> 139Ba + 86Kr + 11n + 176 mev Homework Equations E= mc2 ? 1mol of 235U = 16.5 KJ The Attempt at a Solution Do I need to balance the equation? How...

Homework Statement Hello guys, I was using mcnp code SERPENT, and while defining materials i encountered a problem. The problem is that for example: if I'm given that i have a 3.5 percent enriched U-235. how do i find the rest of the mass percents of U-234, U-238, O2. Now since i know mass...

Hi, everyone! I'm doing a research in gap conduction calculation models in popular nuclear fuel performance codes. I want to make a sensitive analysis in their behaviors, but unfortunately, I just have access to FRAPCON package. is there anyone who can help me to gather some of the codes...

has anyone looked into the possibility of nuclear fusion without neutrons? it would make IEC fusion easier without all the neutrons running around making things radioactive and wearing them down. I am wondering if p-B11 (proton-boron11) fusion is really an aneutronic fuel. deuterium-Helium3...

I just finished an article on the implications of separating Pu-240 from SNF. The implications are pissvly huge, but the article does not consider the technical issues for laser separation. I am familiar with the concept of resonance laser ionization. I am not aware of any real initiative that...

Hi there, I´m just finishing an input file for MCNP5 and I can´t find a value of density for UO2 enriched to 3,25% - 3,6%. Does anyone know it or know where I can find it? Thanks in advance! (P.D.: wikipedia is not my friend... )

4Be8 + 0n1 → 3Li7 +2 0n1 Can we use above reaction for the production of neutrons? Is it possible to obtain a sustainable chain reaction when using Be as fuel?

Hello ,everybody I plan to develop a nuclear fuel cycle simulation software . Is there any body interesting it. I think this is a very complex project. :)

I was wondering if anyone has any actual data on the surface temperature of a fuel rod as a function of time. I am really curious as I am trying out a model I found which uses the fractional calculus. Or if anyone could point in the right direction to find said data that would be great as well.

http://www.ted.com/talks/kirk_sorensen_thorium_an_alternative_nuclear_fuel.html I was impressed by the video; but I was left thinking "What are the downsides?" and "so why haven't we done this already?" - and as such I feel like there's something missing here. Could anyone with more...

I am just a finance guy, but I've been reading up on the current crisis and found this blog. Anyone here thing this guy might actually be correct in his assumptions? http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2011/03/focus-on-food-water-shelter-dr-greg.html

Do exist some proposed nuclear fuel cycle in which uranium or thorium whoud be first converted in some beta or alpha emitting isotope and after energy whould be harnessed with direct energy conversion methods?Possibly, it could reduce size of power plant and make steam turbine unnecessary.

Investigate the potential for the use of a nuclear fuel source for aircraft propulsion: If anybody have related document and ideas please post it

The month long debacle over the BP oil spill, and earlier collapse of a coal mine killing scores of coal miners, makes me wonder: what are the risk to human safety and environmental impact for mining, processing nuclear fuel (i.e uranium, thorium) ? Could acquiring nuclear fuel lead to a...

How much fissile material, in kilograms, would, say, an Ohio-class submarine carry? If it's classified, what would be about a good estimate?

Hello all, I just read an article in POWER magazine for this month (January 2010) that Japan is now operating a MOX-fueled reactor. In this article it is stated that MOX-fuel usage should be about 5% globally this year. Is that statement accurate given the small number of facilites that...

Hello,everybody! I'm a PhD candidate from xi'an jiaotong university,china. There is an urgent need to make a deep understanding about the microstructure evolution of nuclear fuel materials under irradiation. To make my research more close to the frontiers, your suggestions are welcomed. I've...

I hear a lot of talk about the law from teh 70's passed by Congress that forbade the reprocessing of commercial SNF. In my Radioactive Waste Management class today, the professor (who is a CHP/PE who specializes in waste management) said it was actually Carter, not Congress (which means, I...

The other day I took note of the fact that the U.S. does not recycle its spent nuclear fuel. This struck me as very wasteful. Could it be recycled at some later date? Will we run out of Uranium in 50 years, or can we simply dig deeper into the Earth to get more? There must be a large amount...

is there technology to use nuclear fuel for space rockets? what could be the fastest and cheapest way to transport 100000000 kg from Earth to mars? can fission be an alternative? help!

At which rate do Stars burn there fuel, I know there are different stars (giants,dwarfs etc...) For instance i read that our sun fuses 655million tons of Hydrogen into 650 million tons of Helium. The other 5 million is converted into 400 million watts of energy in the process. How did they...

http://www.nea.fr/html/pub/newsletter/2002/20-2-Nuclear_fuel_resources.pdf Also som interesting articles here: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/info.htm

Why do we not use a nuclear fuel instead of uranium that decays into stable elements? Why do we use uranium?