1 / 30

NUCLEAR ENERGY

NUCLEAR ENERGY. Welcome to my nuclear energy power point presentation. Its purpose is to give you a flavour of what nuclear energy is all about. I hope you find it informative and enjoyable. Charles Hobson BSc(hons), BA. NUCLEAR ENERGY.

kochava
Download Presentation

NUCLEAR ENERGY

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. NUCLEAR ENERGY Welcome to my nuclear energy power point presentation. Its purpose is to give you a flavour of what nuclear energy is all about. I hope you find it informative and enjoyable. Charles Hobson BSc(hons), BA

  2. NUCLEAR ENERGY Nuclear energy can be derived from three different processes: • 1. Fission: Splitting the atom Usually uranium • Fusion: Fusing 2 light atoms to form a new atom • Radio active isotope decay: Plutonium 238 Processes 1 & 2 yield huge amounts of energy (heat) Fission is chain reacting; Fusion is not. Process 3 yields useful heat from radioactive decay Fission fuel: Uranium isotope U-235. Fusion fuel: Hydrogen isotopes - Deuterium and Tritium

  3. FISSION Combined mass of Sr 90 & Cs 143 less than U 235 Loss of mass is energy E = mc2 • Slow moving neutron enters U 235 • U 235 absorbs neutron and becomes highly unstable U236 • U 236 splits into radio active strontium 90 & Caesium 137 • Released neutrons absorbed by more U 235 and the process repeats. (Chain reaction) • A huge amount of energy (heat) is released

  4. FUSION Fusion involves two hydrogen isotopes fusing together at extremely high temperature. The result is Helium, protons and huge amounts of energy. Red balls Neutrons; Yellow Protons The resulting Helium will have less mass than the combined masses of the hydrogen isotopes: Deuterium and Tritium. The lost mass is the huge amount of released energy (heat) E = mc2 2035: Estimated date for 1st Nuclear Fusion Power Plant

  5. NUCLEAR REACTOR POWER STATION Containment bldg is a 1.0m thick re-enforced concrete structure Reactor vessel 4mx3m 300 tons 9” thick tough carbon steel Reactor produces 3500MW heat Turbine generators produce ~ 1000MW of electrical power The condenser may receive and discharge its cooling water from either nearby large bodies of water or large cooling towers. (lower right side of above animated picture)

  6. URANIUM Uranium is a silvery white metalic element • It is number 92 in periodic table 92 electrons • It’s nucleus has 92 protons and from 141 to 146 neutrons • This means that uranium has 6 isotopes U233 up to U238. • Uranium is found naturally as U238 with ~ 0.72% U235 • U235 is the only naturally occurring fissionable isotope • U-238 is enriched to ~3% U-235 for Nuclear Power Plants • NOTES: • There is enough known economically accessible U238 ore to keep all of the world’s nuclear power plants running for 200 years.

  7. REACTOR FUEL RODS • FUEL Ceramic Uranium Oxide UO2 (Melting point 2800OC) Enriched Uranium (3-5%) pellets 1cm dia. x 1.5cm long. • Pellets are inserted in 3.7m long zirconium alloy tube. • 264 fuel rods are braced together to form a fuel assembly. 193 fuel assemblies make up the reactor core. Note: The quantities cited above are for a typical reactor core. • CONTROL RODS: Silver Indium Cadmium alloy pellets. • Pure U-238 density is ~ 20gcm-3 Lead is (8.9gcm-3) • The density of Uranium oxide is ~ 10gcm-3 • Doing some math the weight of reactor core = 10,000kg or 10 metric tonnes.

  8. URANIUM ENRICHMENT Enrichment (Increase % of U-235) is a complicated process. There is no chemical difference between Uranium isotopes U-235 and U-238 can only be distinguished by their mass difference (~1.3%) A chemical process is first used to convert the Uranium to Uranium Hexa fluoride (UF6), which has the property of being a solid at room temperature and a gas above ~ 640C A heated Gas centrifuge separates out the U-235.

  9. WORLD-WIDE NUCLEAR POWER (2009) All 31 Countries not shown

  10. UK ELECTRICAL POWER UK 2009 Electricity consumption 5% lower than in 2008 Nuclear power 25% greater than 2008 UK gas imports: 32% 2007, 50% 2009, est. 75% 2015

  11. BRITAIN NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS Combined capacity ~ 9GW 7 Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors (AGR) 1 Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Sizewell B

  12. UK SIZEWELL B NUCLEAR POWER STATION Built and commissioned between 1987 and 1995 Built on time to budget £2,030 million Connected & synchronised to National Grid 14 February 1995

  13. SIZEWELL B NUCLEAR POWER STATION Pressurized Water Reactor (Only one in UK) Primary water loop heated by reactor to 3200C 155 BAR (2240psi) Heat exchanger to secondary loop 62 BAR steam (92psi) High pressure steam drives turbine which turns generator Third loop condenses steam out of turbine using sea water Generators (2) produce 1200MW of power (2 million homes) Station runs continuously 18 month cycle 1 month shut down for standard maintenance and refuelling

  14. NUCLEAR POWER IN OCEAN GOING VESSELS There are over 200 nuclear powered submarines and surface ships worldwide 8 Nuclear Subs were lost, 2 US, 4 Soviet and 2 Russian USS Thresher 1963 and USS Scorpion 1968. Reactors very compact, smaller than normal Nuclear Power Stations. Requires highly enriched Uranium (20%) Fuel lasts for years. Reactors heat water for steam turbines Turbine propels vessels. * China and France propel ships with electric motors, (turbines drive electric generators

  15. NUCLEAR POWER IN SPACE Outer solar system and deep space environment very hostile Space probe equipment needs to be kept warm and electrically powered Sunlight brightness decreases at the inverse square of distance from the Sun.

  16. NUCLEAR POWER IN SPACE Nuclear power sources flown in space a. Radio-isotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) b. Nuclear Reactors (NRs) a. US flew 47 RTGs and 1 NR b. USSR flew 35 NRs and 2 RTGs) SNAP (System for Nuclear Auxiliary Power)

  17. NUCLEAR POWER SPACE Cutaway view 12cm dia. 14cm high Wt = 2.1kg 4.8” x 5.6”

  18. NUCLEAR POWER SPACE Lincoln Experimental Satellites LES-8/9 Launched 1976. To provide pwr for 5 yr Two 40kg RTGs on each LES Designed for 125We 26V (Actual 154We) 2004 still providing electrical power. Contributed to success of subsequent Voyager one and two missions

  19. TWIN VOYAGERS 1 & 2 Voyager 1 &2 launch Dates Sept. 1977 and Aug.1977 Mission to explore all giant planets and their moons Carry on into outer space. Voyager 1 status: 17.4 billion km from sun. 2011-02-04 Voyager 2 status: 14.2 billion km from sun. 2011-02-04 33 years after launch both space craft still sending data

  20. US HISTORY OF FUSION 1970- Chairman of US AEC predicted Fusion Power Plants would be on line by 1995 1976- US EDRC produced plan to achieve this 1980- President Carter signed into law the Magnetic Fusion Energy Engineering Act (October 1980) that articulated that goal and mandated the funding to achieve it. We were on our way! $600 million per year, was authorize, and a clear goal of a working model Fusion Power Plant by 1990. 1981- Carter was not re-elected. Funding was slashed to $150 million per year by new administration, which essentially scuttled the US program for Fusion Energy.

  21. FUSION IN EUROPE Fusion experiments: • As of 2010 Joint European Torus (JET) located at Culham Science Centre Oxfordshire, has been the largest magnetic confinement of plasma physics study. • 1997 JET produced 16.1 MW (21,600 hp for 0.5 seconds. • International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER • International Research and engineering project Expected to demonstrate 500MW fusion power output with 50MW power input. Not done (before) • Being built in Cadarache, France. Seven Nations involved: US, Russia, China, EU, S. Korea, India, Japan • EU as host will contribute 45% of cost & rest 9% each.

  22. MAGNETIC FUSION (The Tokamak) Inside 100 tonne vacuum vessel Toroid weight 384 tonnes Wt. of iron core 2800 tonnes Positive ions (stripped deuterium and tritium atoms) injected Lorenz forces cause ion plasma to circulate inside toroid Plasma current (I2R) heats plasma. Mag. Fields compress ions Neutrons fly off in straight line hits toroid walls

  23. FUSION In the USA • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California National Ignition Facility (NIF) • World’s largest Laser experiment • 192 giant Laser beams at 500 trillion watts. • Laser power focussed on tiny pellet • Pellet contains Hydrogen isotopes • Its temperature is raised to 100 million degrees C. • Cost to build $3.5 billion (some political interference) • Credits for the following NIF Video & images: “Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.“ _Livermore, California USA

  24. National Ignition Facility Video To see video click HERE When video is finished, return to this slide by clicking on the left arrow on the upper left side of the web page. Then continue on to the next power point slide

  25. NIF FUSION A NIF target contains a polished capsule about two millimeters in diameter, filled with cryogenic (super-cooled) hydrogen fuel.

  26. NIF FUSIONHohlraum A metallic case called a hohlraum holds the fuel capsule for NIF experiments. Target handling systems precisely position the target and freeze it to cryogenic temperatures (18 kelvins, or -427 degrees

  27. NIF FUSIONHohlraum The hohlraum is a pencil-eraser-sized cylinder that holds the target, a spherical capsule no larger than a peppercorn.

  28. NIF FUSION Target Chamber On March 10, 2009, at 3:15 a.m., a 192-beam laser shot delivered 1.1 million joules of ultraviolet light to the center of the target chamber - the first time any fusion laser has broken the megajoule barrier (a megajoule is the energy consumed by 10,000 100-watt light bulbs in one second).

  29. NIF FUSION Target Positioner This view from the bottom of the chamber shows the target positioner being inserted. Pulses from NIF's high-powered lasers race toward the Target Bay at the speed of light. They arrive at the center of the target chamber within a few trillionths of a second of each other, aligned to the accuracy of the diameter of a human hair.

  30. NUCLEAR ENERGY Thank you for taking time to view this presentation. I would be most grateful for your comments and suggestions. Comments

More Related