Toured a nuclear reactor today...

[msparish]

For my nuclear physics class, we toured a nuclear reactor today at my university. As it is pretty small (100 kilowatt), we were able to go into the reactor room and actually look at it (it was under about 25-30 feet of water to block the radiation).

Anyway, what was almost more interesting is all the security precautions that have to be taken these days. Some of the information about it was classified (e.g. they couldn't tell us how much uranium was down there). Once question they could answer however, since 1975 they have burned through 7 grams of uranium. In addition, you couldn't get the thing to melt down if you wanted to, it can't even cause the reactor pool to boil. Hence, most of the professors feel that the precautions they have to take are a bit overkill.

Pic

 

[HaxorNubcake]

nifty. always thought water was only for cooling but i guess it makes sense to use it for shielding too. :thumbsup:

 

[Powermoloch]

I wonder how fast would ramen can be cooked under these "intense" conditions. And a side of egg too... 🙂

 

[potato28]

Ya most countries dont want their nuke reactors melting down, so they invested in good reactor technology such as CANDU and TRIGA.

 

[Fenixgoon]

IIRC, reactor fuel isn't nearly as pure in U 235 as nuclear bombs are, correct? so with such a low % U 235, a fission chain reaction wouldnt occur (or at least at the rate of a traditional bomb), right?

 

[Sheepathon]

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
I wonder how fast would ramen can be cooked under these "intense" conditions. And a side of egg too... 🙂

NUCLEAR RAMEN!!!!!

 

[Yossarian]

from the link: "Water is an inexpensive, abundant, and optically clear material."

whew, good thing you're going to class for this stuff!

 

[msparish]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
IIRC, reactor fuel isn't nearly as pure in U 235 as nuclear bombs are, correct? so with such a low % U 235, a fission chain reaction wouldnt occur (or at least at the rate of a traditional bomb), right?

It is a chain reaction, but a controlled one. The reaction is controlled by inserting rods very good at absorbing neutrons. The further they are inserted, the slower the reaction. The safety mechanisms of the reactor involve redundant systems so that if anything goes wrong, the rods are automatically inserted all the way (it takes about half a second). Also, since the fuel isn't as enriched as weapons grade uranium it cannot explode as bomb does.

from the link: "Water is an inexpensive, abundant, and optically clear material."

whew, good thing you're going to class for this stuff!

Hehe...just a page I thought had a good schematic and picture.

 

[Slew Foot]

7 grams of uranium in 30 years? Wow, thats some powerful stuff.

I use that much gas starting my car.

 

[msparish]

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
7 grams of uranium in 30 years? Wow, thats some powerful stuff.

I use that much gas starting my car.

Yeah, I was pretty impressed with that. The reactor isn't on all of the time, just during experiments and demonstrations. But 7 grams in 30 years.

 

[Sukhoi]

Also, since the fuel isn't as enriched as weapons grade uranium it cannot explode as bomb does.

It's also the reactor design that means it can't explode. I know for the numbers we were testing in my nuclear engineering class the reaction wasn't ramping up until 50+ generations and there's no way you can get to that many in a power plant.

Now to one-up the OP, I got to completely tour a 985 MW power plant. 😀 We were all the way in there. Got way up in the containment dome looking straight at the reactor. Then we got to look down into the spent fuel pool and see the actual rods. It was awesome and surreal.

 

[OhioState]

Originally posted by: Sheepathon

Originally posted by: Powermoloch
I wonder how fast would ramen can be cooked under these "intense" conditions. And a side of egg too... 🙂

NUCLEAR RAMEN!!!!!

yummy 😀

 

[LordMorpheus]

Originally posted by: HaxorNubcake
nifty. always thought water was only for cooling but i guess it makes sense to use it for shielding too. :thumbsup:

Small reactors can be sheilded with water. A full size nuclear power plant is not sheilded with water - there is lots of concrete and metal keeping the reaction contained, and the water is pumped in where it cools the reaction, and in the process becomes steam which is used to drive a turbine which, in turn, drives a generator.

A nuclear powerplant operates exactly like an old steam engine, except instead of a coal fire you have nuclear hellfire.

You will only find water sheilding at small research reactors.