Neutron moderator

recently have molten salt reactors, in the form of LFTR technology, experienced a renewed interest among countries concerned with finding practical alternative resources for energy and climate change (Follows). The technology behind liquid fluoride thorium reactors is similar to PWRs in principle. Inside a thorium reactor consists of a two-fluid salt mixture of lithium and beryllium fluoride with uranium fluoride residing at the fissile core. A separate region that surrounds the core, called the blanket, comprises lithium and beryllium fluoride salts with thorium fluoride. The starter fuel, uranium-233, by fission process, heats the neutron-receptive blanket. This heated, liquid core material is pumped through small channels inside a heat exchanger. Excess neutrons are absorbed by the thorium-232 present in the outer blanket, and through neutron activation, breeding additional uranium-233, which is removed with fluoride gas and transported back to seed the core. Fission byproducts are removed and placed in a waste separator. From a separate heat exchanger, a circuit of molten salt heats, via thermal expansion, a closed-cycle helium (or steam) turbine to generate energy. This process is stable at 800 Celsius and at atmospheric pressure. (Hargraves, et al) The state of current nuclear reactors presents two issues concerning safety- waste management and catastrophic reactor events, known as meltdowns. To address the second question, LFTRs can not meltdown, because it…

Fusion is the process of bringing together of small high energy nuclei and creating energy from their fusion. An example of Nuclear Fusion could be perhaps if a Deuterium and a Tritium collide together, it would create a Helium particle, a neutron and an large quantity of energy. Nuclear Fusion is very desirable because of its very nice benefits such as it would run better and cleaner. Nuclear Fission emits dangerous nuclear waste unlike Fusion which just releases Helium and a neutron. The big…

It took place on April 26, 1986, in the city of Chernobyl and Prypiat, Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster involved a newly build power plant which was composed of 4 nuclear reactors exploding and causing significant damages around Europe. This occurred when trying to shut down reactor number four. A sudden power surge took place at which point the reactor was not receiving sufficient amount of water to keep it cool. There was a backup generator which is supposed to be initiated within 15 seconds of…

A nuclear power plant is comprised of many components, but at it 's heart it has a nuclear fission reactor. This reactor works by the reaction of the fissile material. The fissile material is normally uranium-235 but others can be used. Each reaction that occurs emits neutrons that can induce more reactions. In order to keep this exponential process from quickly getting out of hand, control rods are inserted into the reactor core that absorb neutrons without causing a fission reaction. By…

Fission was used in the original atomic bombs, and fusion is most commonly used today. This is due to the fact that the amount of energy that can be released from fission is limited, whereas fusion can theoretically release an unlimited amount of energy. Fusion is the same type of reaction that occurs on stars, thus obviously very powerful. Fusion occurs when two atoms are “fused” together and release a stray neutron. Thermonuclear bombs are much more powerful, and produce significantly greater…

Just twenty years ago, physicists were starting to recognize that protons and neutrons are not elementary particles. Instead, they appeared to be composed of puzzling objects called “quarks.” A quark is now defined as an elementary particle that has an electrical charge equal to 1/3 or 2/3 that of an electron or proton (Riordan 608-609). There are six forms of quarks, known as flavors: up, down, strange, charm, top, and bottom. Up and down quarks are normally stable and are the most common in…

Atoms are what make up what we call “matter.” They are the smallest units of a chemical element, and they consist of protons, neutrons, and electrons. These components form an atom’s subatomic particles. Before discussing the copper atom at length, we must first be able to understand the components that comprise an atom. The first of these components that make up an atom is the proton. The proton is a very important part of an atom, because the atomic number of an atom is equivalent to the…

Instruction explains some concepts to students, by saying that anything that has mass and can occupy space is called matter. Atoms are the main components that make up matters. Name the particles that are in different form in an atom; answer to this question is electrons, protons and neutrons. Where protons and neutrons are found in an atom? Answer: proton can be find in the nucleus, and electrons are located in the shells outside of the nucleus. Can someone in the class defines a molecule?…

the question: what exactly are the properties of copper that give it its properties? An element is a chemical substance in its simplest form. An atom is the basic unit of a chemical element. An atom consists of particles such as electrons, protons, and neutrons. The protons and neutrons of the atom make up its center, called the nucleus, and its electrons surround the nucleus from a certain distance.…

Atomic Theory The atom is the smallest unit of an element. It is composed of two main parts. The nucleus is the central point of an atom. Compacted in that small space are neutrons and protons that constantly jiggle. Neutrons are uncharged particles that add mass to the nucleus without adding a charge. The protons are positively charged particles that are also located in the nucleus and symbolized as p+. The second part of an atom is the electron cloud. The electron cloud is a cloud…