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Nuclear Reactors

Nuclear Reactors. Health Physics Society - Power Reactor Section Radiation Science Education. Location of Operating Nuclear Reactors.

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Nuclear Reactors

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  1. Nuclear Reactors Health Physics Society - Power Reactor Section Radiation Science Education

  2. Location of Operating Nuclear Reactors

  3. Think of a Tea KettleThe fission process creates heat which produces steam in a secondary water system. The steam turns a turbine - generator which produces electricity.

  4. Three Barriers to Contain Radiation

  5. Defense In Depth • 48” concrete containment building • 35” concrete shield • 8” steel reactor vessel • solid nuclear fuel inside steel tubes

  6. How Used Fuel is Removed

  7. What Happens to Used Fuel? • Nuclear reactors split atoms of uranium which creates heat. This process is called fission. • Uranium in a nuclear reactor comes in the form of ceramic pellets. • Only one of the uranium isotopes fission, U-235. New fuel contains about 5% U-235, the rest is U-238. • When most of the U-235 has split, the used-up or “spent fuel” is stored in a large concrete pool lined with stainless steel to cool off.

  8. Dry Cask Storage • At some plants, the pools have filled up. • Some of the fuel that has cooled off, is moved into big concrete casks. • Eventually, the fuel will be sent to a federal government facility for permanent disposal deep under ground. • Spent fuel from San Onofre Unit 1 will soon be stored in this way.

  9. Transportation Safey • A 120-ton locomotive, speeding at 80 miles an hour, crashed broadside into a container on a flatbed. • This photo was taken immediately after impact. • The impact demolished the train, but hardly dented the container.

  10. Yucca Mountain • Volcanic eruptions created Yucca Mountain about 10 million years ago. • Over the ages, layers of volcanic ash compressed and consolidated into a hard rock called tuff. • There is very little rainfall, most of which quickly runs off the surface or evaporates. • The water table under Yucca Mountain is extremely deep. This makes it possible to put a repository 1,000 feet underground and still be 800 feet above the water table.

  11. Permanent Disposal • Yucca Mountain is federally owned land that borders the Nevada Test Site. • More than 900 atomic weapon blasts have been conducted at the Nevada Test Site, mostly underground. • The arid mountain ridge is 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Mojave Desert. • $2 billion dollars have been spent on scientific investigation of the geology and hydrology of the site. • Spent fuel will be stored 1000 feet below under ground, protected by corrosion-resistant containers.

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