The Nuclear Reactor
By Paul Sennyey and Roberto Manco-Stenz
The First Nuclear Reactor
The nuclear reactor was invented in December, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois . It
was invented by Enrico Fermi and his colleagues. It was named the Chicago
Pile, CP-1 was part of the Manhattan Project.
Chicago Pile materials
The first nuclear reactor was steam engine based, the controls were rods of
cadmium, indium, and silver.
The Chicago Pile had no radiation shielding or cooling system of any kind.
It consisted of 40,000 graphite blocks and 19,000 pieces of uranium metal
and uranium oxide fluid.
They arranged the graphite in layers in a 24 wooden square framework.
Modifications to the Chicago Pile
The Chicago Pile was nothing like the nuclear reactors of today. These new
nuclear reactors are commonly called PWRs or pressurized water reactors.
They use a set of pressurized water loops to transfer the heat created by the
controlled nuclear reaction and turn it into electricity.
This process is nonrenewable, but it is sustainable.
Cooling Towers
Nuclear Fission
Nuclear Fission is the term to describe what happens when the bonds that
hold the individual protons and neutrons of an atom are destabilize and break.
It, as Leo Szilard determined, can have an exponential growth rate.
Nuclear Reactor Uses
In 2014, there were 100 nuclear power plants in the United States
The smallest plant in Nebraska produces 502 megawatts an hour.
The largest nuclear reactor is in Palo Verde, Arizona and it has three
generators to produce a total of 3,937 megawatts of electricity an hour.
Operating capacity can change.
The primary uses for nuclear reactors are the production of electricity and
Plutonium-239.
You can power about 1,000 homes with 1 megawatt of electricity.
Environmental Effects
Nuclear reactors are a source of mostly green energy. However, the little
waste they do create is radioactive and takes thousands of years to degrade.
When nuclear reactors melt down, the consequences are catastrophic.
Only two nuclear reactors have ever melted down, Fukushima and Chernobyl.
Fukushima Nuclear Waste
Chernobyl
Why Meltdowns Occur
Meltdowns occur when a reactor loses cooling, as this causes it to overheat
and burn though the containment chamber.
Loss of water also speeds the reaction, due to water being a neutron poison.
Temperatures grow so high that they split water, causing hydrogen
explosions.
Chernobyl
Chernobyl was the first of the great disasters of the nuclear age. On April
25th, around midnight there was an ill-advised experiment that involved the
shutdown of all safety features and all but 6 control rods. This caused an
uncontrolled nuclear reaction, separating the hydrogen from oxygen in the
coolant water and causing a colossal chemical explosion
This ejected 50 tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere and 70+ tons
sideways. This rendered the town of Prypiat uninhabitable.
Fukushima Daiichi
Fukushima is the second nuclear reactor to melt down. In 2011, a 15 meter
high tsunami hit the plant, flooding the backup power generators and causing
it to lose all power. The plant melted down soon after. Hydrogen explosions
have caused massive damage
Three Mile Island
The accident begun on 4 a.m. March 28, 1979 when one of the reactors lost
second stage cooling water and the interior cooling system began to over-
pressurize
A valve was opened to decrease pressure, but the control room knew nothing
of it. The reactor lost most of its coolant and half melted down.
Nuclear Reactor Patents
There are many known nuclear reactor patents such as the 1963 patent by
Roy G Post, which is that of a simple nuclear reactor with a cylindrical water
cooling system. It is US Patent 3088904.
Another example patent is US Patent 20100067644 A1. It describes a thorium
reactor. Thorium reactors use thorium instead of U-235.
Timeline
1895-Roentgen discovers x-rays
1909-Rutherford discovers most mass is concentrated in a small nucleus
1920-Rutherford theorizes a neutron
1938-Hann and Strassman split uranium atoms with neutrons,conclude that a
nuclear chain reaction is possible
1939-Roosevelt authorizes the creation of the advisory committee on uranium,
begins nuclear bomb effort
Timeline Continued
1942-Fermi and colleagues achieve the first nuclear chain reaction in Chicago at
the Chicago Pile
1951-Ebr-1 reactor first to generate electricity in Arco,ID
1979-Three Mile Island nuclear reactor suffers a partial meltdown,radiation largely
contained.
1986-Chernobyl suffers uncontained meltdown.
2004-Nuclear renaissance in US many plans launched for futuristic cleaner
nuclear energy
2011-Reactors at Fukushima Daiichi lose backup generators after tsunami and
suffer meltdowns
Major Discipline in Nuclear Reactors
The major discipline of engineering that deals with nuclear
reactors is nuclear engineering, an offshoot of mechanical
engineering.
Now I am death, destroyer of worlds: Nuclear Weapons
A fissile nuclear explosion is caused by an uncontrolled nuclear reaction
among uranium or plutonium atoms.
A so-called H-bomb is powered by nuclear fusion of hydrogen atoms.
The quote above comes from Bhagavad Gita. Oppenhiemer is said to have thought of it when the Trinity test succeeded.
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