CITY MONTESSORI SCHOOL

ALIGANJ CAMPUS - I

Session: 2022-23

Name : Mohammad Yousuf Ansari

Class : XII B

Roll No. : 25

Subject : Physics

Topic : Nuclear Reactor

Internal Examiner : _________

External Examiner : _________

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my physics teacher “Mr.
D. P. Singh Sir” who gave me this golden opportunity and whose valuable guidance
has been the ones that helped me complete this project successfully on the topic,
“NUCLEAR REACTOR”. Her suggestions and instructions have served as the major
contributor towards the completion of this project.

I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing
this project within a limited time frame.

Mohd. Yousuf Ansari

XII B

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 INDEX

S.NO. TOPIC PAGE NO.

1 Introduction 4

2 Principal of Operation 5-6

3 Working of Nuclear Reactor 7-9

4 Reactor Types 10-18

5 Nuclear Safety 19

6 Nuclear Accidents 20

7 Emissions 21

8 Applications 22

9 Bibliography 23

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 INTRODUCTION

A nuclear reactor, formerly known as an atomic pile, is a device used to initiate and
control a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. Nuclear reactors are used at
nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion.
Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid (water or gas), which in turn
runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ship's propellers or turn
electrical generators' shafts. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for
industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce
isotopes for medical and industrial use, or for production of weapons-grade
plutonium. As of early 2019, the IAEA reports there are 454 nuclear power reactors
and 226 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world.

Main Components of a Nuclear Reactor:

● The Core: It contains all the fuel and generates the heat required for energy
production.
● The Coolant: It passes through the core, absorbing the heat and
transferring into turbines.
● The Turbine: Transfers energy into the mechanical form ⦁ The
Cooling Tower: It eliminates the excess heat that is not converted
or transferred.
● The Containment: The enveloping structure that separated the
nuclear reactor from the surrounding environment.

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 PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

Nuclear reactors operate on the principle of nuclear fission, the process in which a
heavy atomic nucleus splits into two smaller fragments. The nuclear fragments are
in very excited states and emit neutrons, other subatomic particles, and photons.
The emitted neutrons may then cause new fissions, which in turn yield more
neutrons, and so forth. Such a continuous self-sustaining series of fissions
constitutes a fission chain reaction. A large amount of energy is released in this
process, and this energy is the basis of nuclear power systems.

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In an atomic bomb the chain reaction is designed to increase in intensity until
much of the material has fissioned. This increase is very rapid and produces the
extremely prompt, tremendously energetic explosions characteristic of such
bombs. In a nuclear reactor the chain reaction is maintained at a controlled, nearly
constant level. Nuclear reactors are so designed that they cannot explode like
atomic bombs.

Most of the energy of fission—approximately 85 percent of it—is released within a

very short time after the process has occurred. The50 remainder of the energy
produced as a result of a fission event comes from the radioactive decay of fission
products, which are fission fragments after they have emitted neutrons.
Radioactive decay is the process by which an atom reaches a more stable state; the
decay process continues even after fissioning has ceased, and its energy must be
dealt with in any proper reactor design.

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 WORKING OF NUCLEAR
REACTOR

FISSION
When a large fissile atomic nucleus such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239
absorbs a neutron, it may undergo nuclear fission. The heavy nucleus splits into
two or more lighter nuclei, (the fission products), releasing kinetic energy, gamma
radiation, and free neutrons. A portion of these neutrons may be absorbed by
other fissile atoms and trigger further fission events, which release more
neutrons, and so on. This is known as a nuclear chain reaction.

To control such a nuclear chain reaction, neutron poisons and neutron

moderators can change the portion of neutrons that will go on to cause more
fission. Nuclear reactors generally have automatic and manual systems to shut the
fission reaction down if monitoring detects unsafe conditions.

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HEAT GENERATION
The reactor core generates heat in a number of ways:

● The kinetic energy of fission products is converted to thermal energy

when these nuclei collide with nearby atoms.
● The reactor absorbs some of the gamma rays produced during fission
and converts their energy into heat.
● Heat is produced by the radioactive decay of fission products and materials
that have been activated by neutron absorption. This decay heat source will
remain for some time even after the reactor is shut down.
A kilogram of uranium-235 (U-235) converted via nuclear processes releases
approximately three million times more energy than a kilogram of coal burned
conventionally (7.2 × 1013 joules per kilogram of uranium-235 versus 2.4 × 107
joules per kilogram of coal).

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COOLING
A nuclear reactor coolant — usually water but sometimes a gas or a liquid metal
(like liquid sodium) or molten salt — is circulated past the reactor core to absorb
the heat that it generates. The heat is carried away from the reactor and is then
used to generate steam. Most reactor systems employ a cooling system that is
physically separated from the water that will be boiled to produce pressurized
steam for the turbines, like the pressurized water reactor. However, in some
reactors the water for the steam turbines is boiled directly by the reactor core;
for example, the boiling water reactor.

REACTIVITY CONTROL

The rate of fission reactions within a reactor core can be adjusted by

controlling the quantity of neutrons that are able to induce further fission
events. Nuclear reactors typically employ several methods of

neutron control to adjust the reactor's power output. Some of these methods
arise naturally from the physics of radioactive decay and are simply accounted
for during the reactor's operation, while others are mechanisms engineered into
the reactor design for a distinct purpose.

The fastest method for adjusting levels of fission-inducing neutrons in a reactor is

via movement of the control rods. Control rods are made of neutron poisons and
therefore, absorb neutrons. When a control rod is
inserted deeper into the reactor, it absorbs more neutrons than the material it
displaces—often the moderator. This action results in fewer neutrons available to
cause fission and reduces the reactor's power output. Conversely, extracting the
control rod will result in an increase in the rate of fission events and an increase
in power.

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ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION

The energy released in the fission process generates heat, some of which can
be converted into usable energy. A common method of harnessing this
thermal energy is to use it to boil water to produce
pressurized steam which will then drive a steam turbine that turns an alternator
and generates electricity.

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 REACTOR TYPES

CLASSIFICATIONS

By type of nuclear reaction

All commercial power reactors are based on nuclear fission. They generally
use uranium and its product plutonium as nuclear fuel, though a thorium fuel
cycle is also possible. Fission reactors can be divided roughly into two classes,
depending on the energy of the neutrons that sustain the fission chain
reaction:

• Thermal neutron reactors (the most common type of nuclear reactor) use
slowed or thermal neutrons to keep up the fission of their fuel. Almost all
current reactors are of this type. These contain neutron moderator
materials that slow neutrons until their neutron temperature is
thermalized, that is, until their kinetic energy approaches the average
kinetic energy of the surrounding particles. Thermal neutrons have a far
higher cross section (probability) of fissioning the fissile nuclei
uranium-235, plutonium-239, and plutonium-241, and a relatively lower
probability of neutron capture by uranium-238 (U-238) compared to the
faster neutrons that originally result from fission, allowing use of
low-enriched uranium or even natural uranium fuel. The moderator is often
also the coolant, usually water under high pressure to increase the boiling
point. These are surrounded by a reactor vessel, instrumentation to
monitor and control the reactor, radiation shielding, and a containment
building.

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 • Fast neutron reactors use fast neutrons to cause fission in their fuel. They
do not have a neutron moderator, and use less moderating coolants.
Maintaining a chain reaction requires the fuel to be more highly enriched in
fissile material (about 20% or more) due to the relatively lower probability
of fission versus capture by U-238. Fast reactors have the potential to
produce less transuranic waste because all actinides are fissionable with
fast neutrons, but they are more difficult to build and more expensive to
operate. Overall, fast reactors are less common than thermal reactors in
most applications. Some early power stations were fast reactors, as are
some Russian naval propulsion units. Construction of prototypes is
continuing (see fast breeder or generation IV reactors).

In principle, fusion power could be produced by nuclear fusion of elements

such as the deuterium isotope of hydrogen. While an

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ongoing rich research topic since at least the 1940s, no self-sustaining fusion
reactor for power generation has ever been built.

By moderator material
Used by thermal reactors:

• Graphite-moderated reactors

• Water moderated reactors

➢ Heavy-water reactors (Used in Canada, India, Argentina, China,
Pakistan, Romania and South Korea).
➢ Light-water-moderated reactors (LWRs). Light-water reactors (the
most common type of thermal reactor) use ordinary water to
moderate and cool the reactors. When at operating temperature, if
the temperature of the water increases, its density drops, and fewer
neutrons passing through it are slowed enough to trigger further
reactions. That negative feedback stabilizes the reaction rate.
Graphite and heavy-water reactors tend to be more thoroughly
thermalized than light water reactors. Due to the extra
thermalization, these types can use natural
uranium/unenriched fuel.
• Light-element-moderated reactors.
➢ Molten salt reactors (MSRs) are moderated by light elements such as
lithium or beryllium, which are constituents of the coolant/fuel matrix
salts LiF and BeF2.
➢ Liquid metal cooled reactors, such as those whose coolant is a
mixture of lead and bismuth, may use BeO as a moderator.
• Organically moderated reactors (OMR) use biphenyl and terphenyl
as moderator and coolant.

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By coolant

Water cooled reactor. These constitute the great majority of operational nuclear
reactors: as of 2014, 93% of the world's nuclear reactors are water cooled,
providing about 95% of the world's total nuclear generation capacity.
● Pressurized water reactor (PWR) Pressurized water reactors constitute the
large majority of all Western nuclear power plants.
● A primary characteristic of PWRs is a pressurizer, a specialized pressure
vessel. Most commercial PWRs and naval reactors use pressurizers.
During normal operation, a pressurizer is partially filled with water, and a steam
bubble is maintained above it by heating the water with submerged heaters. During
normal operation, the pressurizer is connected to the primary reactor pressure
vessel (RPV) and the pressurizer "bubble" provides an expansion space for changes
in water volume in the reactor. This arrangement also provides a means of pressure
control for the reactor by increasing or decreasing the steam pressure in the
pressurizer using the pressurizer heaters.

Pressurized heavy water reactors are a subset of pressurized water reactors,sharing

the use of a pressurized, isolated heat transport loop, but using heavy water as
coolant and moderator for the greater neutron economies it offers.

● Boiling water reactor (BWR) BWRs are characterized by boiling water around
the fuel rods in the lower portion of a primary reactor pressure vessel. A
boiling water reactor uses U, enriched as uranium dioxide, as its fuel. The
235

fuel is assembled into rods housed in a steel vessel that is submerged in

water. The nuclear fission causes the water to boil, generating steam. This
steam flows through pipes into turbines. The turbines are driven by the
steam, and this process generates electricity. During normal operation,
pressure is controlled by the amount of steam flowing from the reactor
pressure vessel to the turbine.

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Pool-type reactor
● Liquid metal cooled reactor. Since water is a moderator, it cannot be used
as a coolant in a fast reactor. Liquid metal coolants have included sodium,
NaK, lead, lead-bismuth eutectic, and in early reactors, mercury.
➢ Sodium-cooled fast reactor
➢ Lead-cooled fast reactor
● Gas cooled reactors are cooled by circulating inert gas, often helium in
high-temperature designs, while carbon dioxide has been used in past
British and French nuclear power plants. Nitrogen has also been used.
Utilization of the heat varies, depending on the reactor. Some reactors run
hot enough that the gas can directly power a gas turbine. Older designs
usually run the gas through a heat exchanger to make steam for a steam
turbine.
● Molten salt reactors (MSRs) are cooled by circulating molten salt,
typically a eutectic mixture of fluoride salts, such as FLiBe. In a typical
MSR, the coolant is also used as a matrix in which the fissile material is
dissolved.

By generation

● Generation I reactor (early prototypes, research reactors, non

commercial power producing reactors)
● Generation II reactor (most current nuclear power plants 1965– 1996)
● Generation III reactor (evolutionary improvements of existing designs
1996–present)
● Generation IV reactor (technologies still under development
unknown start date, possibly 2030)

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In 2003, the French Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) was the first to
refer to "Gen II" types in Nucleonics Week.

The first mention of "Gen III" was in 2000, in conjunction with the launch of the
Generation IV International Forum (GIF) plans.

"Gen IV" was named in 2000, by the United States Department of Energy
(DOE) for developing new plant types.

By phase of fuel
• Solid fueled
• Fluid fueled
➢ Aqueous homogeneous reactor
➢ Molten salt reactor
• Gas fueled

By shape of the core

• Cubical
• Cylindrical
• Octagonal
• Spherical

• Slab

• Annulus

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By use
• Electricity
➢ Nuclear power plants including small modular reactors
• Propulsion, see nuclear propulsion
➢ Nuclear marine propulsion
➢ Various proposed forms of rocket propulsion
• Other uses of heat
➢ Desalination
➢ Heat for domestic and industrial heating
➢ Hydrogen production for use in a hydrogen economy
• Production reactors for transmutation of elements
➢ Breeder reactors are capable of producing more fissile material than
they consume during the fission chain reaction (by converting fertile
U-238 to Pu-239, or Th-232 to U-233). Thus, a uranium breeder
reactor, once running, can be refueled with natural or even depleted
uranium, and a thorium breeder reactor can be refueled with
thorium; however, an initial stock of fissile material is required.
➢ Creating various radioactive isotopes, such as americium for use in
smoke detectors, and cobalt-60, molybdenum-99 and others, used
for imaging and medical treatment.
➢ Production of materials for nuclear weapons such as weapons-grade
plutonium

• Providing a source of neutron radiation (for example with the pulsed

Godiva device) and positron radiation (e.g. neutron activation analysis
and potassium-argon dating)
• Research reactor: Typically reactors used for research and training,
materials testing, or the production of radioisotopes for medicine and
industry. These are much smaller than power reactors or those propelling
ships, and many are on university campuses. There are about 280 such

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reactors operating in 56 countries. Some operate with high-enriched
uranium fuel, and international efforts are underway to substitute
low-enriched fuel.

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 NUCLEAR SAFETY CONCERNS
AND CONTROVERSY

Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation
accidents and incidents or to limit their consequences. The nuclear power
industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed
new safer (but generally untested) reactor designs but there is no guarantee that
the reactors will be designed, built and operated correctly. Mistakes do occur
and the designers of reactors at Fukushima in Japan did not anticipate that a
tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that
were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake, despite multiple
warnings by the NRG and the Japanese nuclear safety administration. According
to UBS AG, the Fukushima I nuclear accidents have cast doubt on whether even
an advanced economy like Japan can master nuclear safety.

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 NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND
CONTROVERSY

Three of the reactors at Fukushima I overheated, causing the coolant water to

dissociate and led to the hydrogen explosions. This along with fuel meltdowns
released large amounts of radioactive material into the air.

Some serious nuclear and radiation accidents have occurred. Nuclear power plant
accidents include the SL-1 accident (1961), the Three Mile Island accident (1979),
Chernobyl disaster (1986), and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011).
Nuclear-powered submarine mishaps
include the K-19 reactor accident (1961), the K-27 reactor accident (1968), and
the K-431 reactor accident (1985).

Nuclear reactors have been launched into Earth orbit at least 34 times. A number
of incidents connected with the unmanned nuclear-reactor powered Soviet
RORSAT radar satellite program resulted in spent nuclear fuel reentering the
Earth's atmosphere from orbit.

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 EMISSION

Nuclear reactors produce tritium as part of normal operations, which is

eventually released into the environment in trace quantities.

As an isotope of hydrogen, tritium (T) frequently binds to oxygen and forms T2O.
This molecule is chemically identical to H2O and so is both colorless and
odorless, however the additional neutrons in the hydrogen nuclei cause the
tritium to undergo beta decay with a half life of 12.3 years. Despite being
measurable, the tritium released by nuclear power plants is minimal.

The amount of strontium-90 released from nuclear power plants under normal
operations is so low as to be undetectable above natural background radiation.
Detectable strontium-90 in ground water and the general environment can be
traced to weapons testing that occurred during the mid-20th century
(accounting for 99% of the Strontium-90 in the environment) and the Chernobyl
accident (accounting for the remaining 1%).

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 APPLICATIONS

Production of plutonium-239: The ordinary uranium reactor is used to produce

plutonium-239 which is a better fissionable material than uranium-235. Since
plutonium has different chemical properties from uranium, so it can easily be
separated from uranium. The critical size of plutonium-239 is smaller compared to
that of uranium-235 far from the fission chain-reaction. Therefore, the use of
plutonium-239 is economical compared to uranium-235.

Production of neutron beam: Fast moving neutrons are emitted by the fission of
uranium-235 in the reactor. By converging these neutrons into a fine beam,
artificial disintegrations of other elements are studied.

Production of artificial radio-isotopes: Artificial radioactive isotopes of many

elements are produced in the reactor. For this, the element is placed in the
reactor and bombarded with fast-moving neutrons. These radio-isotopes are
utilized in medicines, biology, agriculture, industries and scientific discoveries.

Generation of energy: The energy produced in reactors is used to run electric

generators. Thus, nuclear energy is converted into electrical energy. It is used in
power stations to generate electricity on a large scale which runs industries.
Nuclear energy can be used in place of coal and petrol for driving the engines and
for the propulsion of ships, submarines and aircrafts.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

The content for this project has been taken from the following sources:

Website
➢ en.wikipedia.org
➢ www.britannica.com
➢ www.world-nuclear.org

Book

➢ Nootan ISC physics class xii

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