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Addendum to Nuclear Power

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Addendum to Nuclear Power Uranium-235 Uraninium Uranium is a fairly common element on Earth, incorporated into the planet during the planet's formation. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Addendum to Nuclear Power


1
Addendum to Nuclear Power
2
Uranium-235
  • Uraninium
  • Uranium is a fairly common element on Earth,
    incorporated into the planet during the planet's
    formation. Uranium-238 (U-238) has an extremely
    long half-life (4.5 billion years), and therefore
    is still present in fairly large quantities.
    U-238 makes up 99 percent of the uranium on the
    planet. U-235 makes up about 0.7 percent of the
    remaining uranium found naturally.
  • Uraninium-235
  • Because Uranium-235 is able to undergo induced
    fission, it useful for both nuclear power
    production and for nuclear bomb production.
  • If a free neutron runs into a U-235 nucleus, the
    nucleus will absorb the neutron without
    hesitation, become unstable and split
    immediately.

Induced fission
3
Nuclear Power
  • Nuclear power plants provide about 17 percent of
    the world's electricity.
  • In France, about 75 percent of the electricity is
    generated from nuclear power.
  • In the United States, nuclear power supplies
    about 15 percent of the electricity overall, but
    some states get more power from nuclear plants
    than others.

4
Enrichment
  • A sample of uranium must be enriched so that it
    contains 2 percent to 3 percent or more of
    uranium-235.
  • Three-percent enrichment is sufficient for use in
    a civilian nuclear reactor used for power
    generation.
  • Weapons-grade uranium is composed of 90-percent
    or more U-235.

5
Nuclear Power Plant
  • Typically, the uranium is formed into pellets
    with approximately the same diameter as a dime
    and a length of an inch.
  • The pellets are arranged into long rods, and the
    rods are collected together into bundles and
    submerged in water inside a pressure vessel.
  • In order for the reactor to work, the bundle, has
    to have the tendency to overheat and melt.
  • The water acts as a coolant.
  • To prevent the overheating, control rods made of
    a material that absorbs neutrons are inserted
    into the bundle using a mechanism that can raise
    or lower the control rods.
  • Raising and lowering the control rods allow
    operators to control the rate of the nuclear
    reaction.

6
Reactor Control Rods
7
Nuclear Power Plant, cont
  • The uranium bundle in the reactor acts as an
    extremely high-energy source of heat.
  • It heats the water, creating steam, which drives
    a steam turbine, spinning a generator to produce
    power.

8
Can you answer all of these?
  • Where do you find the coolant?
  • Where do you find the moderator? What does it
    do? What is it usually made of?
  • What is released from the cooling tower?
  • What is the containment structure made of?
  • What is a half-life? Why is it important?
  • Besides, U-235,which other element is used in
    nuclear reactors?
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