Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. When a fissile nucleus like uranium-235 or plutonium-239 absorbs a neutron, it splits into lighter nuclei, releasing energy, gamma radiation, and free neutrons, which can induce further fission in a self-sustaining chain reaction.
Coordinates: 53.36°N 0.81°W. Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) is a spherical tokamak fusion plant concept proposed by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and funded by the UK government. [1][2][3] The project is a proposed DEMO -class successor device to the ITER tokamak proof-of-concept of a fusion plant, the ...
Nuclear fuel has the highest energy density of all practical fuel sources. The processes involved in mining, refining, purifying, using, and disposing of nuclear fuel are collectively known as the nuclear fuel cycle. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing and sustaining nuclear fission.
In the United States, nuclear power is provided by 94 commercial reactors with a net capacity of 97 gigawatts (GW), with 63 pressurized water reactors and 31 boiling water reactors. [ 1 ] In 2019, they produced a total of 809.41 terawatt-hours of electricity, [ 2 ] which accounted for 20% of the nation's total electric energy generation. [ 3 ]
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants. Nuclear decay processes are used in ...
The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR; often pronounced lifter) is a type of molten salt reactor. LFTRs use the thorium fuel cycle with a fluoride -based molten (liquid) salt for fuel. In a typical design, the liquid is pumped between a critical core and an external heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to a nonradioactive secondary ...
Nuclear power can be described as all of the following: Nuclear technology ( outline) – technology that involves the reactions of atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear power, nuclear medicine, and nuclear weapons. It has found applications from smoke detectors to nuclear reactors, and from gun sights to nuclear ...
The expected amount of usable uranium for nuclear power that is recoverable depends greatly on how it is used. The main factor is the nuclear technology: light-water reactors, which comprise the great majority of reactors today, only consume about 0.5% of their uranium fuel, leaving over 99% of it as spent fuel waste.