Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant Case Study

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Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant is located 20 miles southwest of Raleigh, NC. It is a 900 megawatt facility, which provided energy to 550,000 households. Enriched uranium (uranium dioxide pellets) is used as the fuel in the plant, which is 2-3% uranium 235. Cooling is necessary and the plant uses 800-2,600 gallons of water per megawatt hour. U-235 will decay into U-238, which is the primary waste product. Please see the PhET Simulations website for multiple simulations about nuclear energy. (https://phet.colorado.edu/en/search?q=nuclear)

Calculate the mass (in grams) of uranium 235 (U-235) in 1.26 X10⁵ kilograms of UO₂
U-235 undergoes fission when a neutron is added to the nucleus to release Kr-89 as one of the products and 3 neutrons. What is the missing isotope produced in this nuclear fission reaction? Write the complete nuclear fission reaction.
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What are the first two steps that occur? The first step will be an alpha decay; write out the equation for the alpha decay. Its product will go through a second (beta) decay; write out the equation for the beta decay.
U-238 has an extremely long half-life of 4.5 billion years. Using the isotopes from 3, what are the half lives of the 2 products. After 30 days, how many half lives have occurred?
Given 85 grams of Thorium 234, how many grams will remain after 72.3

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