Tag: atoms

Science 101: How a Chain Reaction Works in a U.S. Nuclear Reactor

Paul Rebstock
Senior Instrumentation and Control Systems Engineer

 

science_101_squeakychalkThe primary active ingredient in nuclear reactor fuel is a particular variety, or “isotope,” of uranium, called U235. U235 is relatively rare — only about 0.7% of uranium as it exists in nature is U235. Uranium must be enriched to contain about 5% U235 to function properly as fuel for a U.S. commercial nuclear power plant.

U235 has 92 protons and 143 neutrons. Protons and neutrons are some of the almost unimaginably tiny particles that make up the nucleus of an atom — see Science 101 Blog #1. All other isotopes of uranium also have 92 protons, but different isotopes have slightly different numbers of neutrons.

Uranium is a radioactive element. Uranium atoms break apart, or disintegrate, into smaller atoms, releasing energy and a few leftover neutrons in the process. This happens very slowly for U235. If you have some U235 today, in about 700 million years you will have only half as much. You will have the remaining U235, plus the smaller atoms. The energy released will have gone into the environment too slowly to be noticed, and the extra neutrons will have been absorbed by other atoms.

While this happens very slowly, the disintegration of each individual atom happens very quickly, and the fragments are ejected at a very high speed. Those high-speed fragments are the source of the heat generated by the reactor. Under the right man-made conditions, the number of U235 atoms that disintegrate each second can be increased.

When a U235 atom disintegrates, it releases some neutrons. Some of those neutrons can be made to interact with other U235 atoms, causing them to disintegrate as well. Those “target” atoms release more neutrons when they disintegrate, and then those neutrons interact with still other U235 atoms, and so on. This is called a “chain reaction.” This process does not work well for other isotopes of uranium, which is why the uranium needs to be enriched in U235 for use as nuclear fuel.

Most of the energy released when a U235 atom disintegrates is in the form of kinetic energy — the energy of physical motion. The fragments of the disintegrated atom collide with nearby atoms and set them vibrating. That vibration constitutes heat. The fuel rods get hot as the reaction progresses. The faster the chain reaction — that is, the larger the number of U235 atoms that disintegrate each second — the faster energy is released and the hotter the fuel rods become.

The uranium in a U.S. commercial nuclear reactor is thoroughly mixed with neutral material and formed into pellets about half inch wide and three-quarters of an inch long. The pellets are stacked tightly in metal tubes, forming “fuel rods” that are several feet long. Each fuel rod is just wide enough to hold a single column of pellets. The fuel rods are sealed, to keep all of the radioactive materials inside. There are thousands of these fuel rods in a typical reactor. They contain around 60 tons of uranium – but only about three tons are U235. (The majority of the uranium in the reactor is in the form of the most abundant naturally occurring isotope of uranium, U238, which cannot sustain the fission process without the help of an elevated concentration of the isotope U235.)

The people in charge of the reactor can control the chain reaction by preventing some or all of the released neutrons from interacting with U235 atoms. The physical arrangement of the fuel rods, the low U235 concentration, and other design factors, also limit the number of neutrons that can interact with U235 atoms.

The heat generated by the chain reaction is used to make steam, and that steam powers specialized machinery that drives an electrical generator, generating electricity. Science 101 will look at how that works in more detail in a later issue.

The author has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University.

 

NRC Science 101 – What is an Atom?

Suzanne Schroer
Reliability and Risk Analyst
Office of New Reactors

science_101_squeakychalkWelcome to the NRC’s new blog series, Science 101. Over the course of this series, NRC experts will discuss various scientific principles, with some of the later posts relying on principles and ideas discussed in earlier ones. So, in that sense, this blog series will play out much like a textbook, with each post (or chapter) building upon the previous one.

We hope the information in this series will be helpful to teachers, students and the public who want to better understand the science behind the NRC.

So where do we begin? The topic for today’s post is the atom. It’s considered the basic building block of matter.

Anything that has a mass—in other words, anything that occupies space—is composed of atoms. While its name originally referred to a particle that couldn’t be divided any more—the smallest thing possible—we now know that each atom is generally made up of smaller particles. Given that these particles make up atoms, they are often referred to as subatomic particles. There are three subatomic particles: protons, neutrons and electrons.

Two of the subatomic particles have electrical charges: protons have a positive charge while electrons have a negative charge. Neutrons, on the other hand, don’t have a charge. A fundamental rule is that particles with the same charge are repulsed from each other, while particles with opposite charges are attracted to each other. So, much like opposite ends of a magnet, protons and electrons are attracted to each other. Likewise, just as when you experience resistance trying to push the same ends of two magnets together, protons are repelled from other protons and electrons are repelled from other electrons.

atom1The nucleus (or center) of an atom is made up of protons and neutrons. The number of protons in the nucleus, known as the “atomic number,” primarily determines where that atom fits on the Periodic Table. The number of protons in the nucleus also defines in large part the characteristics of an atom—is it a gas or a metal, for example.

Two atoms with an identical number of protons in their nuclei belong to the same element. An element, like hydrogen, oxygen or iron, is a substance that cannot be broken down—outside of a nuclear reaction—into anything else. In other words, one element cannot be transformed into another (again, with the exception of nuclear reactions).

Now, while the protons are the same in an element, the number of neutrons may vary from atom to atom. The number of neutrons determines what isotope an atom is. This is important to the NRC because the number of neutrons relative to the protons determines the stability of the nucleus, with certain isotopes undergoing radioactive decay. While radioactive decay can occur in a variety of ways, it is, simply put, the process by which unstable atoms break down, releasing particles (and energy).

Generally speaking, atoms with roughly matching numbers of protons and neutrons are more stable against decay. Given how important it is to the work of the NRC, the concept of radioactive decay will be taken up as part of a future blog post.

The nucleus of an atom is surrounded by a cloud of electrons. Remember, electrons are negatively-charged and are attracted to the positively-charged protons in the nucleus. An atom is considered to be electrically neutral if it has an equal number of protons and electrons. If an atom has a different number of electrons and protons, it is called an ion.

An important principle to know is electrons may be transferred from one atom to another or even shared between atoms (allowing atoms to bind together). These bonds allow for the formation of molecules, combinations of atoms (including those of different elements). Just as several atoms make up a molecule, many molecules make up a chemical. Chemicals will be the subject of our next Science 101 post.

The author has a bachelor’s degree in Nuclear Engineering and a master’s in Reliability Engineering.
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