Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
This page describes how uranium dioxide nuclear fuel behaves during both normal nuclear reactor operation and under reactor accident conditions, such as overheating. Work in this area is often very expensive to conduct, and so has often been performed on a collaborative basis between groups of countries, usually under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's ...
An assessment of permanent or temporary changes in a nuclear power plant is performed to evaluate if such changes are within risk criteria. For example, the probability of core damage may increase while replacing a component, but the probability would be even higher if that component were to fail because it wasn't replaced. [ 4 ]
Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) is the study of used nuclear materials such as nuclear fuel.It has several purposes. It is known that by examination of used fuel that the failure modes which occur during normal use (and the manner in which the fuel will behave during an accident) can be studied.
The time required for the fuel to melt. After the water has boiled, then the time required for the fuel to reach its melting point will be dictated by the heat input due to decay of fission products, the heat capacity of the fuel and the melting point of the fuel. The time required for the molten fuel to breach the primary pressure boundary.
Nuclear fuel process A graph comparing nucleon number against binding energy Close-up of a replica of the core of the research reactor at the Institut Laue-Langevin. Nuclear fuel refers to any substance, typically fissile material, which is used by nuclear power stations or other nuclear devices to generate energy.
An activation product is a material that has been made radioactive by the process of neutron activation.. Fission products and actinides produced by neutron absorption of nuclear fuel itself are normally referred to by those specific names, and activation product reserved for products of neutron capture by other materials, such as structural components of the nuclear reactor or nuclear bomb ...
A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt [2]) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term nuclear meltdown is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency [3] or by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. [4]
Hot cells are of nuclear proliferation concern, as they can be used to carry out the chemical steps used to extract plutonium (whether weapons grade or not) from reactor fuel. [ citation needed ] The cutting of the used fuel, the dissolving of the fuel in hot nitric acid and the first extraction cycle of a nuclear reprocessing PUREX process ...