Radioactivity: alpha-, beta- and gamma- rays, Radioactive Decay, Units of radioactivity, Interaction of

gamma rays, neutrons and charged particles with matter, The detection and measurement of
radiation, The basis of the theory of radioactive disintegration, the disintegration constant, radioactive
decay, Half-life and Mean Life.
1. What do you mean by binding energy? Describe its variation with atomic mass number.
2. How do mass attenuation coefficients vary with gamma ray energy? Describe its physical meaning. What are
the differences between a thermal reactor and a first reactor?
3. What do you mean by decay heat? Describe with sketches and examples.
4. What do you mean by "ionizing radiation"? Give three examples of ionizing radiation. What are the three basic
principles of radiation protection?
5. Draw the Binding energy curve and explain its significance.
6. Mention the SI units of absorbed and effective doses, explain their physical meanings and show how they relate
to each other. Give the values of Weighting Factor for different types of radiation.
7. What do you mean by neutron generation, diffusion and moderation? Describe with sketches.
8. Write down the Fermi Edge equation and describe its Physical meaning.
9. What do you mean by nucleus, nuclei, nuclide and nucleon?
10. Using a schematic diagram, derive the foul-factor formula.
11. What do you mean by mass defect? Give a sketch of binding energy curve and explain.
12. What are the multiple barriers to prevent the escape of radioactivity from nuclear reactors? Describe.
13. How radiation exposure can be reduced? What do you mean by penetrating power of radiation? Describe the
interaction of radiation with matter.
14. Name the three basic types of radiation. What are the basic radiation protection techniques that are used in all
radiation facilities?
15. What do you mean by ionizing radiation and radioactivity?
16. Name the SI units used to measure equivalent radiation dose and radioactivity.
17. What do you mean by Gray (Gy) and how does it differ from equivalent dose?
18. Calculate the exposure rate in SI unit at 2 m, for a 111 GBq192Ir source which emits the following gammas:
0.316 MeV (87%), 0.486 MeV (52%), 0.308 MeV (32%), 0.295 MeV (30%).
18. What do you mean by LD50/30? Write down the value of corresponding radiation dose

Nuclear Reaction: Possible type of nuclear interactions, Microscopic cross section and macroscopic
cross-section, nuclear fission and fusion.
1. Give a hypothetical neutron flux distribution in a thermal reactor. What do you mean by moderation of neutron
by elastic collision? List the various possible events that may occur during the lifetime of neutron in a thermal
reactor.
2. Describe the effects of neutron irradiation on the mechanical behavior of metallic materials.
3. Describe the long-term irradiation effects on metal elements of Nuclear Power Reactors.
4. What do you mean be neutron flux and neutron fluence? Indicate their units.
5. What do you mean by Reactor Kinetics (2)? Derive the following equation using basic reactor kinetics principles:
𝑡

𝑁 = 𝑁0𝑒 τ (the symbols used have their usual meanings).

6. Define reactivity. What is prompt critically? Is prompt critically a common situation in normal operation of power
reactors?
7. What do you mean by microscopic and macroscopic cross-sections? Write down the units of these two types of
cross-sections.
8. Calculate the number of fissions per second that occurs in a 300 MW thermal Uranium fueled reactor.
9. Calculate the amount of energy released by complete burning of 1g of U-235.
10. Write down the six-factor formula and briefly describe each terms.
11. Draw the neutron energy vs fission cross-section curve for U-235 and describe it briefly.
12. Name the components of a nuclear power reactor with sketches and describe the working principle of a fission
nuclear reactor.
13. What do you mean by neutron cross-section of uranium and plutonium? Describe with sketches.
14. What are the differences between Four factor and Six factors formula? Explain the basic terms used with
definition.
15. During a startup, a reactor has a stable doubling time of 170 seconds. Calculate the reactor period.
16. The total neutron flux in a shutdown reactor is constant at 7.0 x 103 n/cm2-sec. If non fission neutron sources
are supplying a constant flux of 1.5 x 103n/cm2-sec, then calculate the value of Keff.
17. What do you mean by fission product decay heating? A certain 235U fueled reactor operates at a thermal power
of 1000 MW for 1.5 yrs and is then shutdown. Estimate the decay energy at the times; at shutdown; 2 hrs after
shutdown; 1 year after shutdown. Hence, discuss your findings.
18. What do you mean by fission product yields for thermal and 14-MeV fission in 235 U? Describe with sketches.
Also, mention its importance.
19. What do you mean by neutron cross-section? Explain its importance.
20. Write short note on neutron interaction with matter.
21. With the help of a simple schematic diagram, explain how a fission reactor works.
22. A nuclear reactor is operating at a constant thermal power of 10 MW. Calculate the number of fissions taking
place in the reactor per second. Assume that fission of U-235 fuel is producing all the energy.

Nuclear Power Development: Early history of nuclear energy, worldwide development of nuclear
power, difference between PWR and BWR
1. Name the Commercial Nuclear Power reactor types. Briefly classify from various viewpoint and describe their
basic features.
2. Give a complete schematic diagram of PWR reactor.
3. Write down the major difference between PWRs and BWRs.
4. Draw a diagram of a typical PWR pressure vessel and label the vessel internals.
5. Describe with neat sketches the super critical-water-cooled reactor used in nuclear power plant. What are its
benefits over other reactors?
6. Describe the advantages and disadvantages between pressurized water reactor (PWR) and boiling water
reactor (BWR).
7. Describe the evolution for the generation of nuclear power reactors (NPR) in chronological order.
8. Describe with a sketch, the arrangement of primary system for a 4-loop PWR.
Nuclear Power Development: safety features of VVER (Russian PWR, which the Bangladesh Govt. is
going to establish at Ruppur site), fast breeder reactor, Bangladesh TRIGA research reactor, National
program of nuclear power development with emphasis on Bangladesh, IAEA rules and regulations.
1. What do you mean by nuclear reactor safety system? Briefly describe with proper sketches and examples.
2. What are the specific features of GEN III+ Nuclear Power reactor?
3. What are the specific features of generation IV type nuclear reactors? Describe.
4. Discuss the major safety features of Gen-III+PWRs.
5. Describe the specific characteristics of Gen lII+ PWRS
6. Describe the role and challenges of Nuclear Power in Bangladesh.
7. Mention some important historical milestones in the development of nuclear power reactors.
8. Describe a fast breeder reactor with necessary schematic diagram. Explain the steps how the spent fuel is used
in a fast breeder reactor.
9. Describe a Magnox reactor, which was used at the early stage of nuclear power plant.
10. Describe a sustainable energy strategy. Hence, relate the terms, "energy efficiency”, “renewable energy”,
“Pollution and health risk”.
11. Describe the prospects of Nuclear Power in Bangladesh.
12. What are the purposes of using containment in Nuclear Power Reactor? Describe with sketches.
13. What are the differences between Gen-III+ and Gen-IV Nuclear Power Reactor? Describe.
14. Write down the names of all the major components of a primary cooling loop of a VVER-1200 reactor and also
mention how many primary cooling loops are there.
15. Write down the allowable dose limits for the public exposure as well as occupational exposure of workers of
age 18 and above according to the IAEA G8R-Part 3 schedule III.
16. What do you mean by safety function? What are the safety barriers in nuclear power reactor? Describe.
17. A hypothetical fast breeder reactor is fueled with a mixture 239Pu and 238U. When operating at full power, the
plutonium is consumed at a rate 1 kg per day. The reactor contains 500 kg of 239Pu at its initial start-up and the
breeding gain is 0.15, (i) At what rate is 239Pu is produced (ii) Calculate the linear and exponential doubling times of
the reactor.

Nuclear Reactor Accidents: Historical overview of reactor accidents, the Three Mile Island accident,
the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, other accidents.
1. Write short note on lessons learnt from Fukushima Daiichi and Chernobyl nuclear accidents.
Nuclear Power Generation: Basics of nuclear power generation, Design, analysis and fabrication of
nuclear powers systems, Energy conversion in nuclear power systems, thermal and structural analysis
of reactor core and plant components, corrosion in nuclear power systems: structural metals in
nuclear power plants, operation and maintenance of nuclear power plant, Reactor Controls, Rector
Coolants and Radioactive waste disposal.
1. Name the components of a thermal power reactor and briefly describe function of each component.
2. What are the factors that one should consider in designing nuclear reactor? Describe.
3. Briefly describe the general guidelines for site selection of a nuclear power plant and discuss.
4. Give a cross sectional view of nuclear reactor building and label its components.
5. Name a list of materials that we generally used in the manufacturing of the different components of a nuclear
power reactor.
6. Describe a diagram the Mechanism of heat transfer from fuel element to thermal hydraulic sub channel of a
nuclear reactor.
7. What do you mean by critical heat flux? Describe the methods of increasing critical heat-flux in a nuclear reactor
sub channel.
8. What do you mean by typical coolant sub-channel of a nuclear power reactor? Describe with sketches.
9. How do the actual heat-flux, estimated critical heat-flux and DNB ratio vary along the fuel rod of a power reactor.
Describe with neat sketches.
10. What do you mean by reactivity of a reactor core?
11. Write down the units used for reactivity and also show how these relate to one another.
12. Using the basic concept of effective multiplication factor, derive the relation,

𝑘𝑒𝑓𝑓−1
ρ = 𝑘𝑒𝑓𝑓

where the notations used have their usual meanings.

13. Describe the mechanism of heat removal from reactor channel.

14. Write down the heat conduction equation in cylindrical fuel element of a nuclear power reactor with appropriate
boundary conditions and discuss.
15. What do you mean by thermal-hydraulic sub-channel? Show the axial temperature of fuel rod, cladding surface
and bulk temperature of coolant as functions of height along coolant channel and discuss.
16. With the help of diagrams, show the distribution of fast and thermal neutron fluxes in a reactor core. How the
thermal neutron flux varies around the control rods and in the reflector?
17. Describe the properties of moderator and reflector materials.
18. Describe the procedure for calibrating of a control rod in a nuclear reactor.
19. What do you mean by LOCA? How does cladding temperature system pressure vary with time during initial
stage of LOCA in PWR? Describe.
20. Write short notes on the following:
(i) DNB and DNBR
δ𝑘
21. In a critical PHWR core, a step increase of reactivity by 0.005 𝑘
is made. How many k times the neutron flux
of the reactor will increase in one second measured from the end of the step insertion? (Assume that the neutron
lifetime is 0.001s)
22. Calculate the surface temperature of a fuel rod in a reactor core under sub-cooled forced convective boiling
conditions at a system pressure of 9 MPa when the average heat-flux is (i) 1 MW/m2 (ii) 6 MW/m2. The saturation
temperature of water is 290°C. Discuss the findings.
23. Briefly narrate the meaning of (i) albedo, (ii) core excess, (iii) shutdown margin and (iv) control rod worth.
~ ~
24. The extrapolated dimensions of a certain pressurized water reactor are 𝑅 = 70 inch and 𝐻 = 150 inch. The
reactor operates at the thermal power of 2000 MW. It contains 190 fuel assemblies; each consists of 200 nos. of
UO2 fuel rods 0.40 inch in diameter. Assuming that the assemblies are uniformly distributed throughout the reactor,
calculate the total energy production rate and the maximum energy production rate per ft3 in rods located (i) at the
axis of the reactor, (ii) 18 inch from the axis. Use standard values for Ed, ERand Bessel functions value from the
attached chart.
22. Derive the expression for the total thermal resistance of a cladded cylindrical fuel rod used in a nuclear reactor.
23. Describe with proper diagram the temperature distribution for a non-metallic coolant and for a liquid metal
coolant undergoing turbulent flow inside a reactor channel.
24. Describe the situation "boiling crisis" in regard to nuclear reactor. Explain this situation with flow boiling
phenomena.
25. Derive the expression for the temperature distribution and heat flow of a plate type fuel element. Also, plot and
explain this temperature distribution along with cladding over the fuel.
26. Derive an expression for the temperature distribution and heat flux of a cylindrical fuel rod element used in a
nuclear reactor.
27. Describe with illustration the variation of parameters (temperature, void fraction and heat flux) of water coolant
in a boiling water reactor as a function of distance up to the hottest channel.
28. Describe with proper diagram the temperature distribution for a non- metallic coolant and for a liquid metal
coolant undergoing turbulent flow inside a reactor channel.
29. What are the methods in controlling a nuclear power reactor? Describe.
30. What are the general types of malfunctioning of Nuclear Power reactor? Describe.
31. What do you mean by Decommissioning of a nuclear power plant? Describe briefly the activities during
decommissioning of a nuclear reactor with a block diagram.
32. Describe with a diagram the NSSS integrated plant control system.
33. What is the neutron life cycle? Describe with sketches and examples.
34. Describe classification of radioactive wastes produced from Nuclear Power Plants. Describe high-level waste
activities from different reactor fuel cycles.
35. What is Radioactive Waste? What do you mean by Radioactive Waste Management? Explain the
categorization of the Radioactive Wastes and give example for each of the categories.
36. What do you mean by radioactive wastes and its proper management? Classify the radioactive wastes and
describe.
37. Define burn-up and specific burn-up in nuclear fuel performance.
38. With the help of diagrams, show the distribution of fast and thermal neutron fluxes in a reactor core. How the
thermal neutron flux varies around the control rods and in the reflector?

Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Management: Components of Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC), types of NFC,
components of NFC with diagram, differences between closed and open NFCs, classification of
radioactive wastes, types of wastes associated with PWR operations
1. What do you mean by nuclear fuel cycle? Give a brief outline of complete uranium fuel cycle with a block
diagram.
2. What do you mean by reprocessing of spent fuel? Describe.
3. What is Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC)? What are the major parts of NFC? With a ladled diagram, show the
components of the NFC.
4. Describe a spent fuel pool with necessary schematic diagram. Hence, sketch and level a horizontal storage
module (HSM) with shielded canister.
5. What do you mean by fuel pellet? Describe with sketch the construction of uranium dioxide fuel element.
6. Describe the reserve of uranium in the world. With a block diagram, describe nuclear fuel cycle
7. What is fuel pellet? Describe the microstructural evolution in LWR fuel during irradiation.

Water Management of Nuclear Power Plant: Different types of cooling systems, once through, Wet
cooling tower, Dry cooling tower etc.
1. What is the effect of water quality in Nuclear reactor?
2. What are the different types of corrosion occurs in Nuclear reactors?
3. Discuss about the water treatment and purification process for nuclear power plant.