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See the Soviet-made RBMK nuclear-power reactor. This was the type of reactor involved in the Chernobyl disaster. In the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor, a British design, the core is made of a graphite neutron moderator where the fuel assemblies are located. Carbon dioxide gas acts as a coolant and it circulates through the core, removing heat.
The blocks are stacked, surrounded by the reactor vessel into a cylindrical core with a diameter and height of 14 m × 8 m. [15] The maximum allowed temperature of the graphite is up to 730 °C. [16] The reactor has an active core region 11.8 m in diameter by 7 m height. There are 1700 tons of graphite blocks in an RBMK-1000 reactor. [14]
A containment building is a reinforced steel, concrete or lead structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radioactive steam or gas to a maximum pressure in the range of 275 to 550 kPa (40 to 80 psi).
The core is made up of a hexagonal grid containing 265 separate elements, with fuel channels, control rods, various experimental assemblies and a outer section of solid blanket assemblies (blanks). [7] The reactor vessel also has several experimentation channels in the outer hull, with widths varying from 90mm to 230mm. [8]
A new reactor is assembled with its control rods fully inserted. Control rods are partially removed from the core to allow the nuclear chain reaction to start up and increase to the desired power level. Neutron flux can be measured, and is roughly proportional to reaction rate and power level. To increase power output, some control rods are ...
Liquid metal cooled reactor - utilizes a liquid metal, such as sodium or a lead-bismuth alloy to cool the reactor core. Molten salt reactor - salts, typically fluorides of the alkali metals and of the alkali earth metals, are used as the coolant. Operation is similar to metal-cooled reactors with high temperatures and low pressures, reducing ...
A: So the reactor is fueled, the reactor is closed, bolted shut. Control rods are slowly being pulled out. The control rods absorb neutrons without undergoing any nuclear reactions.
A fission fragment reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates electricity by decelerating an ion beam of fission byproducts instead of using nuclear reactions to generate heat. By doing so, it bypasses the Carnot cycle and can achieve efficiencies of up to 90% instead of 40–45% attainable by efficient turbine-driven thermal reactors.