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Pumps circulate water from the spent fuel pool to heat exchangers, then back to the spent fuel pool. The water temperature in normal operating conditions is held below 50 °C (120 °F). [ 8 ] Radiolysis , the dissociation of molecules by radiation, is of particular concern in wet storage, as water may be split by residual radiation and hydrogen ...
A fuel element failure is a rupture in a nuclear reactor's fuel cladding that allows the nuclear fuel or fission products, either in the form of dissolved radioisotopes or hot particles, to enter the reactor coolant or storage water. [1] The de facto standard nuclear fuel is uranium dioxide or a mixed uranium/plutonium dioxide.
The essential service water system (ESWS) circulates the water that cools the plant's heat exchangers and other components before dissipating the heat into the environment. Because this includes cooling the systems that remove decay heat from both the primary system and the spent fuel rod cooling ponds, the ESWS is a safety-critical system. [7]
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and, depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle , it will have different isotopic ...
The Reactor Protection System (RPS) is a system, computerized in later BWR models, that is designed to automatically, rapidly, and completely shut down and make safe the Nuclear Steam Supply System (NSSS – the reactor pressure vessel, pumps, and water/steam piping within the containment) if some event occurs that could result in the reactor entering an unsafe operating condition.
The site suffered from a combination of two beyond design-basis events, a powerful earthquake, which may have damaged reactor plumbing and structures, and 15 meter tsunami, which destroyed fuel tanks, generators and wiring, causing back up generators to fail, and battery-powered pumps also eventually failed. Insufficient cooling and failure of ...
Control rod assembly for a pressurized water reactor, above fuel element Control rods are used in nuclear reactors to control the rate of fission of the nuclear fuel – uranium or plutonium . Their compositions include chemical elements such as boron , cadmium , silver , hafnium , or indium , that are capable of absorbing many neutrons without ...
Chinon A1 used vertical fuel channels and a steel pressure-vessel. The fuel cladding material was a magnesium - zirconium alloy in the UNGG, as opposed to magnesium-aluminium in Magnox. As both claddings react with water, they can be stored in a spent fuel pool only for short periods of time, making short-term reprocessing of fuel essential ...