Nuclear Power Explained: Harnessing Neutrons for Energy

[the_Shadow_13]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me a simple description on what nuclear power is. I.e. how the neutrons from UO2/U/PuO2 are harnessed for power?

Also, if anyone knows any useful links for information on nuclear power, different types of ractors etc, then it will be very useful

 

[hage567]

Are you familiar with Google? Just type it in and away you go! I will give you www.nrc.gov[/url] and [url]www.aecl.ca[/URL] as sources (since they are credible), but you should do the research on your own since that's how you learn. You can also go to a library to look up this stuff in [B]books[/B]. I'm assuming this is schoolwork?
See if that helps get you started.

 

[berkeman]

And wikipedia.org has a reasonable intro article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_power

 

[Meir Achuz]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me a simple description on what nuclear power is. I.e. how the neutrons from UO2/U/PuO2 are harnessed for power?

Most nuclear power plants use the heat generated by the reactor to boil a liquid to run a turbine.

 

[David Burke]

I have a deeper question. The model for a sustainable nuclear reaction does not require knowledge of the quark interactions during this process. I would like to look into the quark model for a nuclear reactor. Can anyone point me in a good direction without requiring to learn how to calculate color charge interactions?

 

[vanesch]

I would like to point to the nuclear engineering forum we also have on PF. Nuclear reactors and related physics is its main subject.

As to using quantum chromodynamics (the theory of quarks and color) to do low-energy nuclear physics, good luck

No, seriously, experiment is much and much more in advance over ab initio modelling. And even phenomenological modelling in nuclear physics is experiment-driven (and not much more than curve fitting).

 

[Astronuc]

I have a deeper question. The model for a sustainable nuclear reaction does not require knowledge of the quark interactions during this process. I would like to look into the quark model for a nuclear reactor. Can anyone point me in a good direction without requiring to learn how to calculate color charge interactions?

The generation of nuclear energy does not involve quarks. The fission process is based on the binding energy of the collection of nucleons we call a nucleus, specifically fissile nuclei such as U-235, Pu-239 (and 241), U-233, and other heavier transuranics.

A quark model will not help understand or simulate a nuclear reactor. An appropriate core simulator and cross-section (or lattice) physics code will.

Meir Achuz said it in a nutshell. Nuclear energy transforms to thermal energy (heat = kinetic energy of atoms) which is tranported by a working fluid (coolant) either directly or indirectly (through another working fluid) to a turbine where it is transformed into mechanical energy, which drives a generator, which transforms the mechanical energy into electrical energy via a time varying magnetic field.

Berkeman gave a decent recommendation

and i'd add - http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nucene/fission.html

http://www.world-nuclear.org/how/fuelcycle.html

http://www.world-nuclear.org/how/npreactors.html

 

[Meir Achuz]

"I have a deeper question. The model for a sustainable nuclear reaction does not require knowledge of the quark interactions during this process. I would like to look into the quark model for a nuclear reactor. Can anyone point me in a good direction without requiring to learn how to calculate color charge interactions?"
The only unsolved problems for fission reactors are plumbing, Murphy's law, and waste disposal and monitoring.