Nuclear reactors Definition and 35 Threads

Hi. I'm just a curious person with high-school-level scientific knowledge. However, I was wondering if a specially-engineered Generation IV high or very high temperature (800-1,000ºC) nuclear reactor could work in Venus using the local atmosphere at 450ºC as "coolant", just like a "typical"...

I am a dedicated nuclear physics and radiology enthusiast who often looks at the NRC’s event notification reports for information about our countries nuclear industry and the status of our reactors. And every time I read the report and an event occurs at a commercial reactor they are required to...

Hi all, For my studies I chose a course on scaling up and down of industrial processes (mostly focussed on the chemical industry), but for our project we (a group of students who knew almost nothing about nuclear reactors) chose to look if the approach (dimensional analysis) can be applied to...

Me again, with another potentially ignorant nuclear science question: Why isn't tungsten used to prevent meltdown in nuclear reactors? If tungsten has a higher melting point of tungsten is almost 6200 degrees Fahrenheit, and nuclear meltdown happens when the uranium fuel is some 5200 degrees...

Hello. My name is Dom Napolitano and I would like to create a thread on Nuclear Power Technology.

In Wikipedia I read that Uranium-235 is a nuclear is fuel in fission reactors, also that Uranium-235 is split (fission) and energy is revealed. But in some images showing how nuclear reactors work, they show Uranium dioxide as nuclear fuel elements. In Wikipedia, it's written that the oxides...

Hi all, I would like to know what's the kind of work a mechanical engineer has to perform when being part of the team encharged of building a fusion or a generic nuclear reactor. I find many areas in mechanical engineering attractive, but I believe that fusion reactors have great potential in...

In order to confine a plasma, the plasma pressure is supposed to be lower than the magnetic pressure. The ratio of the plasma pressure to the magnetic pressure is called beta . Theoretically, the value of beta is supposed to stay below one to confine a plasma, but can get close to it. But in...

Hello, It seems everybody knows that iodine-131 is produced in nuclear reactors, but so far, I couldn't find any example of nuclear reactions starting with U-235 and leading to I-131...! Directly, undirectly, going through other fission products, going through beta decay... Nothing. I mean...

First, where does the STEAM get it's energy from? The only answers I'll find it the typical, silly, "e=mc2", "from the nuclear fission". Well, heat doesn't just magically GET RELEASED, it needs to be transferred somehow. My guess is that the neutrons and other radioactive materials released in...

Dear all, I would like to learn more about what happens to CRs during the reactor cycle. At the beginning of the cycle large excess reactivity is present in the core and has to be compensated with burnable absorbers (lumped in rods and WABA coating), chemical shim and CRs. There are several...

Hi! I was reading this article about the possibility of detecting removals of "double-use" fissile materials from a known reactor using an antineutrino detector deployed in a truck "that uses 20 tons or less of scintillator material (and) could be fit into a 6-meter shipping container and parked...

I created a diagram on nuclear reactors to advocate for the use of it. Tell me if you see anything I should change.

How would a super-critical heavy water cooled and moderated two fluid aqueous homogeneous reactor with nitrate fuel work? Silicon carbide or alumina can be used as cladding for the internal seed core and blanket walls, with the silicon carbide on the blanket wall cladding stainless steel and...

I am interested in nuclear reactors for space propulsion. I have a few questions about it. Nuclear fuel cells in ground based nuclear power plants can work for years before burning out. Why is it for nuclear space reactors they only last for hours? Also how can we improve the proportion of the...

If nuclear waste is more radioactive than the nuclear fuel it is derived from, why can't it be used in a reactor?

What courses can I pursue after my undergrad education that will enable me to work on next gen nuclear technologies? What kinds of people work in these areas and what career paths do they choose? I've read a lot about the different kinds of people working on Gen 4 reactors(LFTRs, TWRs) and...

I am an aeronautical engineer and I am curious why do NE's design the reactor smokestacks to be shaped like elongated rocket nozzles? In general, the nozzle shape offers less drag and a cleaner exit of the flow upstream and downstream from the nozzle exit. In supersonic flow, the nozzle shape is...

Is there any manipulation of nuclear particle to sort out the nuclear reactor?

What would be the difficulty of building each? I have read of Michio Kaku building an atom smasher (albeit it ruined the power flow to his house,) I have found a 200,000 volt generator so I presume that a particle accelerator would be possible, and my friend is currently working on a nuclear...

Hello, In experiments such as KamLAND, it is expected to measure neutrinos emitted by Japan's nuclear reactors. Such experiments were built to find evidence for neutrino oscillation. Is there anyone who knows how one can make the difference between the neutrinos from nuclear reactors and...

So occasionally I see something in the news about some teenage who built a nuclear reactor in his basement. And just the other day, my girlfriend told me that one of her clients mentioned that her boyfriend is a Physics major at my university, and has a nuclear reactor in his garage that he...

Hello I am finishing my physics degree and I am interested in doing postgraduate study in the area of nuclear physics. I was thinking about doing the course mentioned in the title, which is offered at the University of Birmingham. Does anyone know anything about this course, or other courses...

Are there any reactors which employ heat pipes for heat removal ? If so can you send me links / details of published lit. TIA

I don't know too much about nuclear power and reactors, so I would like to ask some things. I do realize that this isn't just science, but gets political and economical as well, so I decided to post in General discussion- so if you just want to talk about one area, or all three, either way is...

I understand how nuclear reactors work, and how to stop them. But I am not understanding how you start the reaction? The fuel rods are placed in, and then what? What actually gets the process going?

Regarding nuclear reactor I need some clarifiications; 1. During fisssioin of U-235 it is said that the temperature raises to several million degree celcius (in uncontrolled chain reation). But what will be temperature produced when a controlled chain reaction takes place inside a nuclear...

I have just finished my PhD in Statistics. My Masters Dissertation was on the topic of Accelerator Driven Nuclear Energy Systems. I would be very interested in continuing research on the subject as a post-doctoral student.

convection...nuclear reactors...** hey guys, there is one question i am having a great deal of trouble trying to find formulas and stuff for out of my textbook and don't really have the time or patience to search through hundreds of google pages :bugeye:. so any help on this would be greatly...

"The Cavradyne engines were based on the assumption of years of research and development, during the 1980s and '90s, of gaseous core nuclear reactors and high-temperature ionized gases. Theory was presumed to have shown that gaseous uranium-235 could be made critical in a cavity reactor only...

Hi I am a gr.12 student and I have a project where I have to give a presentation along with 3 other group members. The topic is nuclear reactors, we have all the technical knowledge however we're not very good presenters and the teacher is a bit picky on that. So if anyone has any ideas on how...

Please Kindly porvide information about the failure of nuclear reactors materials

What nations actually have commercial nuclear reactors producing energy for their country?

Hi I have a report to write title "state of the art nuclear reactors" however the content of this is up to my own interpretation.I have taken "state-of-the-art" to mean the highest level of development of a device/ technique at a particular time, so what would this mean in terms of nuclear...

1) Churnobyl was NOT even close to what a typical nuclear reactor is like. 2)Reactors never go Nuclear Bomb, it is impossible 3)all reactors in service today would never melt down to the point of getting to the ground water, or even the ground because the reaction stops almost imediatly and...