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Reduced Moderation Water Reactor
The Reduced-Moderation Water Reactor (RMWR), also referred to as the Resource-renewable BWR, is a proposed type of light water moderated nuclear power reactor, featuring some characteristics of a fast neutron reactor, thereby combining the established and proven technology of light water reactors with the desired features of fast neutron reactors. The RMWR concept builds upon the Advanced Boiling Water Reactor and is under active development in theoretical studies, particularly in Japan. Hitachi and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency are both involved in research. Even in Generation II PWRs, the neutron spectrum is not fully thermalised. The goal of the RMWR is to depart further from the thermal neutron spectrum in order to achieve a breeder ratio of slightly greater than one, so that after the initial fuel charge no enrichment of the uranium input to the fuel cycle is required. The RMWR concept is dependent on nuclear fuel reprocessing in order to achieve its objective of a resour ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Water Reactor
The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator; furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron reactors are the most common type of nuclear reactor, and light-water reactors are the most common type of thermal-neutron reactor. There are three varieties of light-water reactors: the pressurized water reactor (PWR), the boiling water reactor (BWR), and (most designs of) the supercritical water reactor (SCWR). History Early concepts and experiments After the discoveries of fission, moderation and of the theoretical possibility of a nuclear chain reaction, early experimental results rapidly showed that natural uranium could only undergo a sustained chain reaction using graphite or heavy water as a moderator. While the world's first reactors ( CP-1, X10 etc.) were successfully reaching criticality, uranium enrichment began to devel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thorium
Thorium is a chemical element; it has symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is a weakly radioactive light silver metal which tarnishes olive grey when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft, malleable, and has a high melting point. Thorium is an electropositive actinide whose chemistry is dominated by the +4 oxidation state; it is quite reactive and can ignite in air when finely divided. All known thorium isotopes are unstable. The most stable isotope, 232Th, has a half-life of 14.05 billion years, or about the age of the universe; it decays very slowly via alpha decay, starting a decay chain named the thorium series that ends at stable 208 Pb. On Earth, thorium and uranium are the only elements with no stable or nearly-stable isotopes that still occur naturally in large quantities as primordial elements. Thorium is estimated to be over three times as abundant as uranium in the Earth's crust, and is chiefly refined from monazite sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supercritical Water Reactor
The supercritical water reactor (SCWR) is a concept Generation IV reactor, designed as a light water reactor (LWR) that operates at supercritical pressure (i.e. greater than ). The term ''critical'' in this context refers to the critical point of water, and should not be confused with the concept of criticality of the nuclear reactor. The water heated in the reactor core becomes a supercritical fluid above the critical temperature of , transitioning from a fluid more resembling liquid water to a fluid more resembling saturated steam (which can be used in a steam turbine), without going through the distinct phase transition of boiling. The supercritical water reactor combines the established technologies of the supercritical steam generator (typically used to generate electricity from fossil fuels) with the boiling water reactor (BWR), to achieve a design that is simpler and more efficient than a BWR, by operating at a higher pressure. As with a BWR, the turbine and react ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Alvin Weinberg Foundation
The Alvin Weinberg Foundation was a registered UK charity, operating under the name Weinberg Next Nuclear, that campaigned for research and development into next-generation nuclear energy. In particular, it advocated advancement of liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) and other molten salt reactor (MSR) technologies. It was named for Alvin M. Weinberg, Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory between 1955–1973 and the main advocate of MSR development. History * September 2011: Launched at House of Lords. * January 2014: Becomes a Registered Charity in England and Wales. * May 2015: Stephen Tindale joins as Director. * July 2017: The Weinberg Foundation dissolved. People * Baroness Worthington is trustee and patron. * Stephen Tindale, who led Greenpeace in the UK from 2000 until 2005, was its last Director. See also * Generation IV reactor * Liquid fluoride thorium reactor * Molten salt reactor * Thorium-based nuclear power Thorium-based nuclear power generation is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minor Actinide
Minor may refer to: Common meanings * Minor (law), a person not under the age of certain legal activities. * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Mathematics * Minor (graph theory), a relation of one graph to another * Minor (matroid theory), a relation of one matroid to another * Minor (linear algebra), the determinant of a square submatrix Music * Minor chord * Minor interval * Minor key * Minor scale People * Minor (given name), a masculine given name * Minor (surname), a surname Places in the United States * Minor, Alabama, a census-designated place * Minor, Virginia, an unincorporated community * Minor Creek (California) * Minor Creek (Missouri) * Minor Glacier, Wyoming Sports * Minor, a grade in Gaelic games; also, a person who qualifies to play in that grade * Minor league, a sports league not regarded as a premier league ** Minor League Baseball Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isotopes Of Iodine
There are 40 known isotopes of iodine (53I) from 108I to 147I; all undergo radioactive decay except 127I, which is stable. Iodine is thus a monoisotopic element. Its longest-lived radioactive isotope, 129I, has a half-life of 16.14 million years, which is too short for it to exist as a primordial nuclide. Cosmogenic sources of 129I produce very tiny quantities of it that are too small to affect atomic weight measurements; iodine is thus also a mononuclidic element—one that is found in nature only as a single nuclide. Most 129I derived radioactivity on Earth is man-made, an unwanted long-lived byproduct of early nuclear tests and nuclear fission accidents. All other iodine radioisotopes have half-lives less than 60 days, and four of these are used as tracers and therapeutic agents in medicine - 123I, 124I, 125I, and 131I. All industrial use of radioactive iodine isotopes involves these four. The isotope 135I has a half-life less than seven hours, which is inconveniently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tc-99
Technetium-99 (99Tc) is an isotope of technetium that decays with a half-life of 211,000 years to stable ruthenium-99, emitting beta particles, but no gamma rays. It is the most significant long-lived fission product of uranium fission, producing the largest fraction of the total long-lived radiation emissions of nuclear waste. Technetium-99 has a fission product yield of 6.0507% for thermal neutron fission of uranium-235. The metastable technetium-99m (99mTc) is a short-lived (half-life about 6 hours) nuclear isomer used in nuclear medicine, produced from molybdenum-99. It decays by isomeric transition to technetium-99, a desirable characteristic, since the very long half-life and type of decay of technetium-99 imposes little further radiation burden on the body. Radiation The weak beta emission is stopped by the walls of laboratory glassware. Soft X-rays are emitted when the beta particles are stopped, but as long as the body is kept more than 30 cm away these should pos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fission Products
Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release of heat energy (kinetic energy of the nuclei), and gamma rays. The two smaller nuclei are the ''fission products''. (See also Fission products (by element)). About 0.2% to 0.4% of fissions are ternary fissions, producing a third light nucleus such as helium-4 (90%) or tritium (7%). The fission products themselves are usually unstable and therefore radioactive. Due to being relatively neutron-rich for their atomic number, many of them quickly undergo beta decay. This releases additional energy in the form of beta particles, antineutrinos, and gamma rays. Thus, fission events normally result in beta and additional gamma radiation that begins immediately after, even though this radiation is not produced directly by the fission event its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nuclear Transmutation
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or an isotope into another chemical element. Nuclear transmutation occurs in any process where the number of protons or neutrons in the nucleus of an atom is changed. A transmutation can be achieved either by nuclear reactions (in which an outside particle reacts with a nucleus) or by radioactive decay, where no outside cause is needed. Natural transmutation by stellar nucleosynthesis in the past created most of the heavier chemical elements in the known existing universe, and continues to take place to this day, creating the vast majority of the most common elements in the universe, including helium, oxygen and carbon. Most stars carry out transmutation through fusion reactions involving hydrogen and helium, while much larger stars are also capable of fusing heavier elements up to iron late in their evolution. Elements heavier than iron, such as gold or lead, are created through elemental transmutations that can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epithermal Neutron
The neutron detection temperature, also called the neutron energy, indicates a free neutron's kinetic energy, usually given in electron volts. The term ''temperature'' is used, since hot, thermal and cold neutrons are moderated in a medium with a certain temperature. The neutron energy distribution is then adapted to the Maxwell distribution known for thermal motion. Qualitatively, the higher the temperature, the higher the kinetic energy of the free neutrons. The momentum and wavelength of the neutron are related through the de Broglie relation. The long wavelength of slow neutrons allows for the large cross section. Neutron energy distribution ranges The precise boundaries of neutron energy ranges are not well defined, and differ between sources, but some common names and limits are given in the following table. The following is a detailed classification: Thermal A thermal neutron is a free neutron with a kinetic energy of about 0.025 eV (about 4.0×10−21 J or 2.4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transuranium
The transuranium (or transuranic) elements are the chemical elements with atomic number greater than 92, which is the atomic number of uranium. All of them are radioactively unstable and decay into other elements. Except for neptunium and plutonium, which have been found in trace amounts in nature, none occur naturally on Earth and they are synthetic. Overview Of the elements with atomic numbers 1 to 92, most can be found in nature, having stable isotopes (such as oxygen) or very long-lived radioisotopes (such as uranium), or existing as common decay products of the decay of uranium and thorium (such as radon). The exceptions are technetium, promethium, astatine, and francium; all four occur in nature, but only in very minor branches of the uranium and thorium decay chains, and thus all save francium were first discovered by synthesis in the laboratory rather than in nature. All elements with higher atomic numbers have been first discovered in the laboratory, with neptunium an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
