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Berkeley Research Reactor
The Berkeley Research Reactor was an active research nuclear reactor housed in the basement of the Etcheverry Hall in University of California, Berkeley. The reactor became critical on 10 August 1966 and was decommissioned in 1987. Description The Berkeley Research Reactor was a TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotope production, General Atomics) Mark III open pool reactor with a steady rated thermal power of 1 MW, capable of being pulsed to 2,000 MW. Professor Lawrence Ruby was the chairman of the Nuclear Engineering Reactor Committee and held key roles in the design and analysis of Etcheverry Hall to support reactor licensing, then served as the first reactor supervisor after it was completed. It first achieved Criticality (status), criticality on August 10, 1966, and was used for irradiation of various items, as a teaching tool, and to generate radionuclides. Notable events On 16 September 1985, a fuel cladding failure resulted in "unusually high concentrations of radioi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a Nuclear fission, fission nuclear chain reaction. They are used for Nuclear power, commercial electricity, nuclear marine propulsion, marine propulsion, Weapons-grade plutonium, weapons production and Research reactor, research. Fissile material, Fissile nuclei (primarily uranium-235 or plutonium-239) absorb single neutron, neutrons and split, releasing energy and multiple neutrons, which can induce further fission. Reactors stabilize this, regulating Neutron absorber, neutron absorbers and neutron moderator, moderators in the core. Fuel efficiency is exceptionally high; Enriched uranium#Low-enriched uranium (LEU), low-enriched uranium is 120,000 times more energy dense than coal. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid Nuclear reactor#By coolant, coolant. In commercial reactors, this drives Turbine, turbines and electrical generator shafts. Some reactors are used for district heating, and isotopes, isoto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Etcheverry Hall
Etcheverry Hall houses the Departments of Mechanical, Industrial, and Nuclear Engineering of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Etcheverry Hall is named after Bernard A. Etcheverry, professor of irrigation and drainage from 1915 to 1951, who later served as chair of the Department of Irrigation and Drainage from 1923–51. Built in 1964, it is located on the north side of Hearst Avenue, across the street from the main campus. The basement of Etcheverry Hall housed the Berkeley Research Reactor between 1966 and 1987. Bernard A. Etcheverry Bernard Alfred Etcheverry was born in San Diego, California, on June 30, 1881, and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1902. He married Helen Hanson on August 6, 1903, and together they had two sons, Bernard Earle and Alfred Starr. His first teaching appointment was to the Department of Civil Engineering at UC Berkeley, where he taught during the 1902–03 academic year. After that, he taught physics and civil eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkeley, it is the state's first land-grant university and is the founding campus of the University of California system. Berkeley has an enrollment of more than 45,000 students. The university is organized around fifteen schools of study on the same campus, including the UC Berkeley College of Chemistry, College of Chemistry, the UC Berkeley College of Engineering, College of Engineering, UC Berkeley College of Letters and Science, College of Letters and Science, and the Haas School of Business. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was originally founded as par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
TRIGA
TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics) is a class of nuclear research reactor designed and manufactured by General Atomics. The design team for TRIGA, which included Edward Teller, was led by the physicist Freeman Dyson. Design TRIGA is a swimming pool reactor that can be installed without a containment building, and is designed for research and testing use by scientific institutions and universities for purposes such as undergraduate and graduate education, private commercial research, non-destructive testing and isotope production. The TRIGA reactor uses uranium zirconium hydride (UZrH) fuel, which has a large, prompt negative fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity, meaning that as the temperature of the core increases, the reactivity rapidly decreases. Because of this unique feature, it has been safely pulsed at a power of up to 22,000 megawatts. The hydrogen in the fuel is bound in the uranium zirconium hydride crystal structure with a vibrational energ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
General Atomics
General Atomics (GA) is an American energy and defense corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, that specializes in research and technology development. This includes physics research in support of nuclear fission and nuclear fusion energy. The company also provides research and manufacturing services for remotely operated surveillance aircraft, including its MQ-1 Predator drones, airborne sensors, and advanced electric, electronic, wireless, and laser technologies. History General Atomics was founded on July 18, 1955, in San Diego, California, by Frederic de Hoffmann with assistance from notable physicists Edward Teller and Freeman Dyson. The company was originally part of the General Atomic division of General Dynamics "for harnessing the power of nuclear technologies". GA's first offices were in the General Dynamics facility on Hancock Street in San Diego. GA also used a schoolhouse on San Diego's Barnard Street as its temporary headquarters, which it would l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Pool Reactor
NC State's PULSTAR Reactor is a 1 MW pool-type research reactor with 4% enriched, pin-type fuel consisting of UO2 pellets in zircaloy cladding.image:Pulstar1.jpg">The control room of NC State's Pulstar Nuclear Reactor. A swimming pool reactor, also called an open pool reactor, is a type of nuclear reactor that has a core (consisting of the fuel elements and the control rods) immersed in an open pool usually of water. The water acts as neutron moderator, cooling agent and radiation shield. The layer of water directly above the reactor core shields the radiation so completely that operators may work above the reactor safely. This design has two major advantages: the reactor is easily accessible and the entire primary cooling system, ''i.e.'' the pool water, is under normal pressure. This avoids the high temperatures and pressures of conventional nuclear power plants. Pool reactors are used as a source of neutrons and for training, and in rare instances, for processing heat, but n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criticality (status)
In the operation of a nuclear reactor, criticality or critical state is the state in which a nuclear chain reaction is self-sustaining but not growing. Subcriticality or subcritical state is the state in which a nuclear chain reaction is not self-sustaining. Supercriticality or supercritical state is the state in which a nuclear chain reaction is self-sustaining and growing. Sometimes, less preferably, criticality takes a wider definition, and refers to the any state in which a nuclear chain reaction is self-sustaining, no matter growing or not (encompassing criticality in strict definition and supercriticality). In terms of reactivity, reactivity is 0 in criticality, less than 0 in subcriticality, greater than 0 in supercriticality. In terms of effective neutron multiplication factor (), is 1 in criticality, less than 1 in subcriticality, greater than 1 in supercriticality. Applications Criticality is the normal operating condition of a nuclear reactor, in which nuclear fue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radionuclide
A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess numbers of either neutrons or protons, giving it excess nuclear energy, and making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transferred to one of its electrons to release it as a conversion electron; or used to create and emit a new particle (alpha particle or beta particle) from the nucleus. During those processes, the radionuclide is said to undergo radioactive decay. These emissions are considered ionizing radiation because they are energetic enough to liberate an electron from another atom. The radioactive decay can produce a stable nuclide or will sometimes produce a new unstable radionuclide which may undergo further decay. Radioactive decay is a random process at the level of single atoms: it is impossible to predict when one particular atom will decay. However, for a collection of atoms of a single nu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fuel Cladding
Nuclear fuel refers to any substance, typically fissile material, which is used by nuclear power stations or other nuclear devices to generate energy. Oxide fuel For fission reactors, the fuel (typically based on uranium) is usually based on the metal oxide; the oxides are used rather than the metals themselves because the oxide melting point is much higher than that of the metal and because it cannot burn, being already in the oxidized state. Uranium dioxide Uranium dioxide is a black semiconducting solid. It can be made by heating uranyl nitrate to form . : This is then converted by heating with hydrogen to form UO2. It can be made from enriched uranium hexafluoride by reacting with ammonia to form a solid called ammonium diuranate, . This is then heated (calcined) to form and U3O8 which is then converted by heating with hydrogen or ammonia to form UO2. The UO2 is mixed with an organic binder and pressed into pellets. The pellets are then fired at a much higher tempe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear-free Zone
A nuclear-free zone is an area in which nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants are banned. The specific ramifications of these depend on the locale in question, but are generally distinct from nuclear-weapon-free zones, in that the latter only bans nuclear weapons but may permit nuclear power. Nuclear-free zones usually neither address nor prohibit radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine even though many of them are produced in nuclear reactors. They typically do not prohibit other nuclear technologies such as cyclotrons used in particle physics. Several sub-national authorities worldwide have declared themselves "nuclear-free". However, the label is often symbolic, as nuclear policy is usually determined and regulated at higher levels of government: nuclear weapons and components may traverse nuclear-free zones via military transport without the knowledge or consent of local authorities which had declared nuclear-free zones. Palau became the first nuclear-free nation in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
