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72-517: The Phase 1 (No. 1 and 2 reactors ) at the Kola NPP went online in 1973 and 1974, respectively, and are part of Russia’s first generation of PWR reactors (the VVER 440/230 type). The Phase 2 (No. 3 and 4 reactors ) went online in 1981 and 1984 with the improved VVER 440/213 type. Phase 1 reactors were designed to work for 30 years and were originally slated to be shut down in 2003 and 2004. However

144-479: A nuclear proliferation risk as they can be configured to produce plutonium , as well as tritium gas used in boosted fission weapons . Reactor spent fuel can be reprocessed to yield up to 25% more nuclear fuel, which can be used in reactors again. Reprocessing can also significantly reduce the volume of nuclear waste, and has been practiced in Europe, Russia, India and Japan. Due to concerns of proliferation risks,

216-558: A " neutron howitzer ") produced a barium residue, which they reasoned was created by fission of the uranium nuclei. In their second publication on nuclear fission in February 1939, Hahn and Strassmann predicted the existence and liberation of additional neutrons during the fission process, opening the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction . Subsequent studies in early 1939 (one of them by Szilárd and Fermi), revealed that several neutrons were indeed released during fission, making available

288-441: A crucial role in generating large amounts of electricity with low carbon emissions, contributing significantly to the global energy mix. Just as conventional thermal power stations generate electricity by harnessing the thermal energy released from burning fossil fuels , nuclear reactors convert the energy released by controlled nuclear fission into thermal energy for further conversion to mechanical or electrical forms. When

360-405: A fission nuclear chain reaction . Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion . When a fissile nucleus like uranium-235 or plutonium-239 absorbs a neutron , it splits into lighter nuclei, releasing energy, gamma radiation , and free neutrons, which can induce further fission in a self-sustaining chain reaction . The process

432-438: A fission product daughter after beta decay), any time from a few milliseconds to a few minutes after the fission event. Neutrons born within 10 seconds of the fission are termed "prompt neutrons". In a nuclear reactor large nuclides fission into two neutron-rich fission products (i.e. unstable nuclides ) and free neutrons (prompt neutrons). Many of these fission products then undergo radioactive decay (usually beta decay) and

504-445: A gas or a liquid metal (like liquid sodium or lead) or molten salt – is circulated past the reactor core to absorb the heat that it generates. The heat is carried away from the reactor and is then used to generate steam. Most reactor systems employ a cooling system that is physically separated from the water that will be boiled to produce pressurized steam for the turbines , like the pressurized water reactor . However, in some reactors

576-442: A large fissile atomic nucleus such as uranium-235 , uranium-233 , or plutonium-239 absorbs a neutron, it may undergo nuclear fission. The heavy nucleus splits into two or more lighter nuclei, (the fission products ), releasing kinetic energy , gamma radiation , and free neutrons . A portion of these neutrons may be absorbed by other fissile atoms and trigger further fission events, which release more neutrons, and so on. This

648-424: A less effective moderator. In other reactors, the coolant acts as a poison by absorbing neutrons in the same way that the control rods do. In these reactors, power output can be increased by heating the coolant, which makes it a less dense poison. Nuclear reactors generally have automatic and manual systems to scram the reactor in an emergency shut down. These systems insert large amounts of poison (often boron in

720-478: A license for the fifteen year life extension of Unit 1 in June 2008, after further reviews, inspections and upgrade work. In 2016, initial plans were announced to build the first VVER-600 at Kola by 2030. The VVER-600 will be a smaller two cooling circuit version of the current VVER-1200 , designed for smaller regions and markets. Nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control

792-570: A number of ways: A kilogram of uranium-235 (U-235) converted via nuclear processes releases approximately three million times more energy than a kilogram of coal burned conventionally (7.2 × 10 joules per kilogram of uranium-235 versus 2.4 × 10 joules per kilogram of coal). The fission of one kilogram of uranium-235 releases about 19 billion kilocalories , so the energy released by 1 kg of uranium-235 corresponds to that released by burning 2.7 million kg of coal. A nuclear reactor coolant – usually water but sometimes

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864-465: A patent on reactors on 19 December 1944. Its issuance was delayed for 10 years because of wartime secrecy. "World's first nuclear power plant" is the claim made by signs at the site of the EBR-I , which is now a museum near Arco, Idaho . Originally called "Chicago Pile-4", it was carried out under the direction of Walter Zinn for Argonne National Laboratory . This experimental LMFBR operated by

936-773: A pile (hence the name) of graphite blocks, embedded in which was natural uranium oxide 'pseudospheres' or 'briquettes'. Soon after the Chicago Pile, the Metallurgical Laboratory developed a number of nuclear reactors for the Manhattan Project starting in 1943. The primary purpose for the largest reactors (located at the Hanford Site in Washington ), was the mass production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. Fermi and Szilard applied for

1008-407: A planned typical lifetime of 30–40 years, though many of those have received renovations and life extensions of 15–20 years. Some believe nuclear power plants can operate for as long as 80 years or longer with proper maintenance and management. While most components of a nuclear power plant, such as steam generators, are replaced when they reach the end of their useful lifetime, the overall lifetime of

1080-471: A reactor. One such process is delayed neutron emission by a number of neutron-rich fission isotopes. These delayed neutrons account for about 0.65% of the total neutrons produced in fission, with the remainder (termed " prompt neutrons ") released immediately upon fission. The fission products which produce delayed neutrons have half-lives for their decay by neutron emission that range from milliseconds to as long as several minutes, and so considerable time

1152-529: A set of theoretical nuclear reactor designs. These are generally not expected to be available for commercial use before 2040–2050, although the World Nuclear Association suggested that some might enter commercial operation before 2030. Current reactors in operation around the world are generally considered second- or third-generation systems, with the first-generation systems having been retired some time ago. Research into these reactor types

1224-492: A stage of radioactive decay (which is a beta minus decay ) that yields a new nucleus (the emitter nucleus) in an excited state that emits an additional neutron, called a "delayed" neutron, to get to ground state. These neutron-emitting fission fragments are called delayed neutron precursor atoms. Delayed Neutron Data for Thermal Fission in U-235 If a nuclear reactor happened to be prompt critical – even very slightly –

1296-510: A time scale that is governed by the delayed neutron production, which is slow enough to be controlled (just as an otherwise unstable bicycle can be balanced because human reflexes are quick enough on the time scale of its instability). Thus, by widening the margins of non-operation and supercriticality and allowing more time to regulate the reactor, the delayed neutrons are essential to inherent reactor safety , even in reactors requiring active control. The lower percentage of delayed neutrons makes

1368-499: Is carefully controlled using control rods and neutron moderators to regulate the number of neutrons that continue the reaction, ensuring the reactor operates safely, although inherent control by means of delayed neutrons also plays an important role in reactor output control. The efficiency of nuclear fuel is much higher than fossil fuels; the 5% enriched uranium used in the newest reactors has an energy density 120,000 times higher than coal. Nuclear reactors have their origins in

1440-413: Is inserted deeper into the reactor, it absorbs more neutrons than the material it displaces – often the moderator. This action results in fewer neutrons available to cause fission and reduces the reactor's power output. Conversely, extracting the control rod will result in an increase in the rate of fission events and an increase in power. The physics of radioactive decay also affects neutron populations in

1512-428: Is known as a nuclear chain reaction . To control such a nuclear chain reaction, control rods containing neutron poisons and neutron moderators are able to change the portion of neutrons that will go on to cause more fission. Nuclear reactors generally have automatic and manual systems to shut the fission reaction down if monitoring or instrumentation detects unsafe conditions. The reactor core generates heat in

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1584-405: Is mined, processed, enriched, used, possibly reprocessed and disposed of is known as the nuclear fuel cycle . Under 1% of the uranium found in nature is the easily fissionable U-235 isotope and as a result most reactor designs require enriched fuel. Enrichment involves increasing the percentage of U-235 and is usually done by means of gaseous diffusion or gas centrifuge . The enriched result

1656-401: Is produced. Fission also produces iodine-135 , which in turn decays (with a half-life of 6.57 hours) to new xenon-135. When the reactor is shut down, iodine-135 continues to decay to xenon-135, making restarting the reactor more difficult for a day or two, as the xenon-135 decays into cesium-135, which is not nearly as poisonous as xenon-135, with a half-life of 9.2 hours. This temporary state is

1728-448: Is reaching or crossing their design lifetimes of 30 or 40 years. In 2014, Greenpeace warned that the lifetime extension of ageing nuclear power plants amounts to entering a new era of risk. It estimated the current European nuclear liability coverage in average to be too low by a factor of between 100 and 1,000 to cover the likely costs, while at the same time, the likelihood of a serious accident happening in Europe continues to increase as

1800-416: Is required to determine exactly when a reactor reaches the critical point. Keeping the reactor in the zone of chain reactivity where delayed neutrons are necessary to achieve a critical mass state allows mechanical devices or human operators to control a chain reaction in "real time"; otherwise the time between achievement of criticality and nuclear meltdown as a result of an exponential power surge from

1872-410: Is then converted into uranium dioxide powder, which is pressed and fired into pellet form. These pellets are stacked into tubes which are then sealed and called fuel rods . Many of these fuel rods are used in each nuclear reactor. Delayed neutron In nuclear engineering , a delayed neutron is a neutron emitted after a nuclear fission event, by one of the fission products (or actually,

1944-490: The Manhattan Project . Eventually, the first artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1 , was constructed at the University of Chicago , by a team led by Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, in late 1942. By this time, the program had been pressured for a year by U.S. entry into the war. The Chicago Pile achieved criticality on 2 December 1942 at 3:25 PM. The reactor support structure was made of wood, which supported

2016-517: The PWR , BWR and PHWR designs above, and some are more radical departures. The former include the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR), two of which are now operating with others under construction, and the planned passively safe Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR) and AP1000 units (see Nuclear Power 2010 Program ). Rolls-Royce aims to sell nuclear reactors for the production of synfuel for aircraft. Generation IV reactors are

2088-524: The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission produced 0.8 kW in a test on 20 December 1951 and 100 kW (electrical) the following day, having a design output of 200 kW (electrical). Besides the military uses of nuclear reactors, there were political reasons to pursue civilian use of atomic energy. U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower made his famous Atoms for Peace speech to the UN General Assembly on 8 December 1953. This diplomacy led to

2160-477: The coolant also acts as a neutron moderator . A moderator increases the power of the reactor by causing the fast neutrons that are released from fission to lose energy and become thermal neutrons. Thermal neutrons are more likely than fast neutrons to cause fission. If the coolant is a moderator, then temperature changes can affect the density of the coolant/moderator and therefore change power output. A higher temperature coolant would be less dense, and therefore

2232-460: The precursor's decay is termed a delayed neutron. The "delay" in the neutron emission is due to the delay in beta decay (which is slower since controlled by the weak force ), since neutron emission, like gamma emission, is controlled by the strong nuclear force and thus either happens at fission, or nearly simultaneously with the beta decay, immediately after it. The various half lives of these decays that finally result in neutron emission, are thus

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2304-402: The "iodine pit." If the reactor has sufficient extra reactivity capacity, it can be restarted. As the extra xenon-135 is transmuted to xenon-136, which is much less a neutron poison, within a few hours the reactor experiences a "xenon burnoff (power) transient". Control rods must be further inserted to replace the neutron absorption of the lost xenon-135. Failure to properly follow such a procedure

2376-580: The 1986 Chernobyl disaster and 2011 Fukushima disaster . As of 2022 , the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there are 422 nuclear power reactors and 223 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world. The US Department of Energy classes reactors into generations, with the majority of the global fleet being Generation II reactors constructed from the 1960s to 1990s, and Generation IV reactors currently in development. Reactors can also be grouped by

2448-554: The Russian Federation's civilian nuclear regulator Gosatomnadzor (FSETAN’s predecessor), were issued without conducting an obligatory state environmental impact study. Conducting such federal level studies is mandated by the law "On Environmental Impact Studies" in Article 11. The first extension for the old reactors was issued in summer 2003, almost precisely after former Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Andrei Malyshev

2520-736: The U.S. military sought other uses for nuclear reactor technology. Research by the Army led to the power stations for Camp Century, Greenland and McMurdo Station, Antarctica Army Nuclear Power Program . The Air Force Nuclear Bomber project resulted in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment . The U.S. Navy succeeded when they steamed the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) on nuclear power 17 January 1955. The first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall in Sellafield , England

2592-535: The United States does not engage in or encourage reprocessing. Reactors are also used in nuclear propulsion of vehicles. Nuclear marine propulsion of ships and submarines is largely restricted to naval use. Reactors have also been tested for nuclear aircraft propulsion and spacecraft propulsion . Reactor safety is maintained through various systems that control the rate of fission. The insertion of control rods, which absorb neutrons, can rapidly decrease

2664-565: The World War II Allied Manhattan Project . The world's first artificial nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, achieved criticality on 2 December 1942. Early reactor designs sought to produce weapons-grade plutonium for fission bombs , later incorporating grid electricity production in addition. In 1957, Shippingport Atomic Power Station became the first reactor dedicated to peaceful use; in Russia, in 1954,

2736-569: The area was contaminated, like Fukushima, Three Mile Island, Sellafield, and Chernobyl. The British branch of the French concern EDF Energy , for example, extended the operating lives of its Advanced Gas-cooled Reactors (AGR) with only between 3 and 10 years. All seven AGR plants were expected to be shut down in 2022 and in decommissioning by 2028. Hinkley Point B was extended from 40 to 46 years, and closed. The same happened with Hunterston B , also after 46 years. An increasing number of reactors

2808-795: The beginning of his quest to produce the Einstein-Szilárd letter to alert the U.S. government. Shortly after, Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939, starting World War II in Europe. The U.S. was not yet officially at war, but in October, when the Einstein-Szilárd letter was delivered to him, Roosevelt commented that the purpose of doing the research was to make sure "the Nazis don't blow us up." The U.S. nuclear project followed, although with some delay as there remained skepticism (some of it from Enrico Fermi ) and also little action from

2880-412: The beta decay half lives of the precursor radionuclides. Delayed neutrons play an important role in nuclear reactor control and safety analysis. Delayed neutrons are associated with the beta decay of the fission products. After prompt fission neutron emission the residual fragments are still neutron rich and undergo a beta decay chain. The more neutron rich the fragment, the more energetic and faster

2952-567: The beta decay. In some cases the available energy in the beta decay is high enough to leave the residual nucleus in such a highly excited state that neutron emission instead of gamma emission occurs. Using U-235 as an example, this nucleus absorbs thermal neutrons , and the immediate mass products of a fission event are two large fission fragments, which are remnants of the formed U-236 nucleus. These fragments emit, on average, two or three free neutrons (in average 2.47), called "prompt" neutrons . A subsequent fission fragment occasionally undergoes

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3024-458: The choices of coolant and moderator. Almost 90% of global nuclear energy comes from pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors , which use water as a coolant and moderator. Other designs include heavy water reactors , gas-cooled reactors , and fast breeder reactors , variously optimizing efficiency, safety, and fuel type , enrichment , and burnup . Small modular reactors are also an area of current development. These reactors play

3096-467: The complexities of handling actinides , but significant scientific and technical obstacles remain. Despite research having started in the 1950s, no commercial fusion reactor is expected before 2050. The ITER project is currently leading the effort to harness fusion power. Thermal reactors generally depend on refined and enriched uranium . Some nuclear reactors can operate with a mixture of plutonium and uranium (see MOX ). The process by which uranium ore

3168-688: The dissemination of reactor technology to U.S. institutions and worldwide. The first nuclear power plant built for civil purposes was the AM-1 Obninsk Nuclear Power Plant , launched on 27 June 1954 in the Soviet Union . It produced around 5 MW (electrical). It was built after the F-1 (nuclear reactor) which was the first reactor to go critical in Europe, and was also built by the Soviet Union. After World War II,

3240-494: The energy of the neutrons that sustain the fission chain reaction : In principle, fusion power could be produced by nuclear fusion of elements such as the deuterium isotope of hydrogen . While an ongoing rich research topic since at least the 1940s, no self-sustaining fusion reactor for any purpose has ever been built. Used by thermal reactors: In 2003, the French Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA)

3312-423: The environmental impact studies. But none of this took place. The Murmansk Prosecutors again ordered the state structures to fulfill the earlier order, but was again unsuccessful. Norway's Nature and Youth and Norway-based Bellona ’s "Environment and Rights" magazine first drew the attention of prosecutors to the illegality of prolonging the life-spans of the reactors in 2004. Rostekhnadzor subsequently issued

3384-524: The first small nuclear power reactor APS-1 OBNINSK reached criticality. Other countries followed suit. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid coolant (water or gas), which in turn runs through turbines . In commercial reactors, turbines drive electrical generator shafts. The heat can also be used for district heating , and industrial applications including desalination and hydrogen production . Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use. Reactors pose

3456-407: The fission process generates heat, some of which can be converted into usable energy. A common method of harnessing this thermal energy is to use it to boil water to produce pressurized steam which will then drive a steam turbine that turns an alternator and generates electricity. Modern nuclear power plants are typically designed for a lifetime of 60 years, while older reactors were built with

3528-529: The form of boric acid ) into the reactor to shut the fission reaction down if unsafe conditions are detected or anticipated. Most types of reactors are sensitive to a process variously known as xenon poisoning, or the iodine pit . The common fission product Xenon-135 produced in the fission process acts as a neutron poison that absorbs neutrons and therefore tends to shut the reactor down. Xenon-135 accumulation can be controlled by keeping power levels high enough to destroy it by neutron absorption as fast as it

3600-424: The fuel rods. This allows the reactor to be constructed with an excess of fissionable material, which is nevertheless made relatively safe early in the reactor's fuel burn cycle by the presence of the neutron-absorbing material which is later replaced by normally produced long-lived neutron poisons (far longer-lived than xenon-135) which gradually accumulate over the fuel load's operating life. The energy released in

3672-447: The idea of nuclear fission as a neutron source, since that process was not yet discovered. Szilárd's ideas for nuclear reactors using neutron-mediated nuclear chain reactions in light elements proved unworkable. Inspiration for a new type of reactor using uranium came from the discovery by Otto Hahn , Lise Meitner , and Fritz Strassmann in 1938 that bombardment of uranium with neutrons (provided by an alpha-on-beryllium fusion reaction,

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3744-411: The most stringent in the world. The Kola Nuclear Power Plant has four units: Several environment movement groups such as the ecologists from Norway and Russia support media campaign to close Kola NPP citing safety concerns with Phase 1 reactors and alleged violations of Russian law during issue of operating permit extensions. The license for phase 1 reactors five-year operation extensions, granted by

3816-449: The normal nuclear chain reaction, would be too short to allow for intervention. This last stage, where delayed neutrons are no longer required to maintain criticality, is known as the prompt critical point. There is a scale for describing criticality in numerical form, in which bare criticality is known as zero dollars and the prompt critical point is one dollar , and other points in the process interpolated in cents. In some reactors,

3888-429: The number of neutrons would increase exponentially at a high rate, and very quickly the reactor would become uncontrollable by means of external mechanisms. The control of the power rise would then be left to its intrinsic physical stability factors, like the thermal dilatation of the core, or the increased resonance absorptions of neutrons, that usually tend to decrease the reactor's reactivity when temperature rises; but

3960-581: The opportunity for the nuclear chain reaction that Szilárd had envisioned six years previously. On 2 August 1939, Albert Einstein signed a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt (written by Szilárd) suggesting that the discovery of uranium's fission could lead to the development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type", giving impetus to the study of reactors and fission. Szilárd and Einstein knew each other well and had worked together years previously, but Einstein had never thought about this possibility for nuclear energy until Szilard reported it to him, at

4032-406: The physics of radioactive decay and are simply accounted for during the reactor's operation, while others are mechanisms engineered into the reactor design for a distinct purpose. The fastest method for adjusting levels of fission-inducing neutrons in a reactor is via movement of the control rods . Control rods are made of so-called neutron poisons and therefore absorb neutrons. When a control rod

4104-463: The power plant is limited by the life of components that cannot be replaced when aged by wear and neutron embrittlement , such as the reactor pressure vessel. At the end of their planned life span, plants may get an extension of the operating license for some 20 years and in the US even a "subsequent license renewal" (SLR) for an additional 20 years. Even when a license is extended, it does not guarantee

4176-572: The reactor fleet grows older. The neutron was discovered in 1932 by British physicist James Chadwick . The concept of a nuclear chain reaction brought about by nuclear reactions mediated by neutrons was first realized shortly thereafter, by Hungarian scientist Leó Szilárd , in 1933. He filed a patent for his idea of a simple reactor the following year while working at the Admiralty in London, England. However, Szilárd's idea did not incorporate

4248-416: The reactor will continue to operate, particularly in the face of safety concerns or incident. Many reactors are closed long before their license or design life expired and are decommissioned . The costs for replacements or improvements required for continued safe operation may be so high that they are not cost-effective. Or they may be shut down due to technical failure. Other ones have been shut down because

4320-410: The reactor would run the risk of being damaged or destroyed by heat. However, thanks to the delayed neutrons, it is possible to leave the reactor in a subcritical state as far as only prompt neutrons are concerned: the delayed neutrons come a moment later, just in time to sustain the chain reaction when it is going to die out. In that regime, neutron production overall still grows exponentially, but on

4392-437: The reactor's output, while other systems automatically shut down the reactor in the event of unsafe conditions. The buildup of neutron-absorbing fission products like xenon-135 can influence reactor behavior, requiring careful management to prevent issues such as the iodine pit , which can complicate reactor restarts. There have been two reactor accidents classed as an International Nuclear Event Scale Level 7 "major accident":

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4464-420: The reactor. Another concept, is the effective fraction of delayed neutrons β eff , which is the fraction of delayed neutrons weighted (over space, energy, and angle) on the adjoint neutron flux. This concept arises because delayed neutrons are emitted with an energy spectrum more thermalized relative to prompt neutrons. For low enriched uranium fuel working on a thermal neutron spectrum, the difference between

4536-419: The resulting nuclides are unstable with respect to beta decay . A small fraction of them are excited enough to be able to beta-decay by emitting a delayed neutron in addition to the beta. The moment of beta decay of the precursor nuclides – which are the precursors of the delayed neutrons – happens orders of magnitude later compared to the emission of the prompt neutrons . Hence the neutron that originates from

4608-503: The shutdown did not happen. Instead, the operational life spans of the reactors were extended, after a massive safety upgrade effort that included about 200 safety systems upgrade projects and was financed in part by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Finland and USA. Kola NPP produces about half of Murmansk Oblast 's energy. The newest two reactors are of a similar reactor type to Finland's Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant , which conforms to regulatory requirements commonly considered to be

4680-647: The small number of officials in the government who were initially charged with moving the project forward. The following year, the U.S. Government received the Frisch–Peierls memorandum from the UK, which stated that the amount of uranium needed for a chain reaction was far lower than had previously been thought. The memorandum was a product of the MAUD Committee , which was working on the UK atomic bomb project, known as Tube Alloys , later to be subsumed within

4752-414: The use of large percentages of plutonium in nuclear reactors more challenging. The precursor yield fraction β is defined as: and it is equal to 0.0064 for U-235. The delayed neutron fraction (DNF) is defined as: These two factors, β and DNF , are almost the same thing, but not quite; they differ in the case a rapid (faster than the decay time of the precursor atoms) change in the number of neutrons in

4824-424: The water for the steam turbines is boiled directly by the reactor core ; for example the boiling water reactor . The rate of fission reactions within a reactor core can be adjusted by controlling the quantity of neutrons that are able to induce further fission events. Nuclear reactors typically employ several methods of neutron control to adjust the reactor's power output. Some of these methods arise naturally from

4896-481: Was a key step in the Chernobyl disaster . Reactors used in nuclear marine propulsion (especially nuclear submarines ) often cannot be run at continuous power around the clock in the same way that land-based power reactors are normally run, and in addition often need to have a very long core life without refueling . For this reason many designs use highly enriched uranium but incorporate burnable neutron poison in

4968-636: Was installed as Gosatomnadzor’s chief. He replaced Yury Vishnevsky at this post. Vishnevsky had been an outspoken critic of the former Ministry of Atomic Energy, now known as the Federal Agency for Atomic energy, or Rosatom. In April 2005, the Murmansk Regional Prosecutor issued a recommendation to resolve the violations surrounding the reactor life-span extensions and force regulatory bodies and Rosenergoatom, Russian's nuclear power plant operations conglomerate, to carry out

5040-788: Was officially started by the Generation ;IV International Forum (GIF) based on eight technology goals. The primary goals being to improve nuclear safety, improve proliferation resistance, minimize waste and natural resource utilization, and to decrease the cost to build and run such plants. Generation V reactors are designs which are theoretically possible, but which are not being actively considered or researched at present. Though some generation V reactors could potentially be built with current or near term technology, they trigger little interest for reasons of economics, practicality, or safety. Controlled nuclear fusion could in principle be used in fusion power plants to produce power without

5112-463: Was opened in 1956 with an initial capacity of 50 MW (later 200 MW). The first portable nuclear reactor "Alco PM-2A" was used to generate electrical power (2 MW) for Camp Century from 1960 to 1963. All commercial power reactors are based on nuclear fission . They generally use uranium and its product plutonium as nuclear fuel , though a thorium fuel cycle is also possible. Fission reactors can be divided roughly into two classes, depending on

5184-649: Was the first to refer to "Gen II" types in Nucleonics Week . The first mention of "Gen III" was in 2000, in conjunction with the launch of the Generation IV International Forum (GIF) plans. "Gen IV" was named in 2000, by the United States Department of Energy (DOE), for developing new plant types. More than a dozen advanced reactor designs are in various stages of development. Some are evolutionary from

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