How does a nuclear power plant work? 10 points best answer?
singerwhoo asked:
I know that uranium is used and nuclear fission.
But…how is plutonium used and why is it not as common as uranium in a power plant. Also, What are the products of nuclear fission.
How much does it have to be enriched.
Why cant U-238 be used?
Why is the product (of fission) so radioactive?
I know that uranium is used and nuclear fission.
But…how is plutonium used and why is it not as common as uranium in a power plant. Also, What are the products of nuclear fission.
How much does it have to be enriched.
Why cant U-238 be used?
Why is the product (of fission) so radioactive?
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NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
The history of nuclear technology takes back in late 1920’s, when a New Zealand born British physicist, Ernest Rutherford discovered that alpha rays could split the nucleus of an atom in 1919. This led ultimately to the discovery of the neutron and the release of huge amounts of energy by the process of nuclear fission. This experiment latter found to be the key for nuclear bomb and nuclear energy. After the discovery of nucleus and electron, scientists grew interest in nuclear power. This gave birth to a new branch of physics known as nuclear physics.
Nuclear energy is the energy obtained from nuclear fission. Fission is a process in which a heavy atomic nucleus gets divided into two fragments of roughly equal mass. This produces a huge amount of energy. The energy released in the fission uranium nucleus about 50 million times greater than that released when a carbon atom combines with oxygen atoms in the burning of coal. In nuclear power plants, nuclear energy is used to convert water into stem. This stem drives the turbine that run a generator to produce electricity. Nuclear energy can be used in propeller of submarine or in production in nuclear bomb. Nuclear technology is also being used in medical treatments, especially in cancer treatment. Nuclear technology is used for sterilization, preservation of food and in treatment of water. Even nuclear toothpaste was also introduced in mid 20th century, but it was banned latter.
Nuclear fuels are used in reactors that carry the process of nuclear fission. Uranium 235 is commonly used as fuels. They are found in form of ores. This ore contains the mixture of uranium 235 and uranium 238. They must be extracted from ores. Uranium ores contains only 0.7% of uranium 235. Through a complex chemical reaction to increase this percentage is increased to 3 – 4%. This process is known as enrichment.
You can use U-235 or plutonium, it doesn’t matter, but the second is much more radioactive and therefore dangerous to use. Basically they start a controlled nuclear fission that heats a water container by way of a coil similar that you have in your refrigerator, only thicker and heavier, obviously. This coil, pass trough the U-235 container and goes through the water container, keeping the radioactivity don´t letting it pass to the water container making it boil in very high temperatures. The water steam drives a turbine that generates electricity.
The questions you ask cannot be readily answered in this format, so you will need to do some reading. A good place to start is:
Briefly, a nuclear power plant uses mildly enriched U-238 as a fuel. The enrichment is about 3% U-235. Emitted neutrons provoke a chain reaction in the U-235 nuclei. this reaction gives off enormous amounts of energy, primarily gamma (?) and thermal. This energy boils water into steam that is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity. The reaction is controlled by moderator rods inserted into the pile to a greater or lesser extent. These rods absorb the emitted neutrons and so control the rate of induced fission.
Plutonium is extremely rare in nature. Most of what there is has been made in nuclear reactors where it is a product of uranium irradiation.
The products of nuclear fission are many, ranging from the decay products of the original fissionable material through those isotopes generated by irradiation of U-238. U-238 has a very long half life (which is why it’s still around) and does not undergo induced fission, which is why it is not used as a fuel. Pu-239 and Pu-241 on the other hand are fissionable.
Many products of fission are radioactive because unstable nuclei are created in the reactor by bits of one nucleus banging into other nuclei (to put it simply)