Future Energy Option: The High Temperature Gas Colled Reactors

Reactor operators control the chain reaction created by nuclear fission to regulate the amount of heat generated and energy produced.

　　　　In the recent years, nuclear energy has gotten a comprehensive development. There are over 430 commercial nuclear power reactors operable in 31 countries, with over 370,000 MWe of total capacity. About 70 more reactors are under construction, and these numbers are still rising up (World Nuclear

It’s clear that a Nuclear power plant such as the Fukushima Daiichi can be classified as an HRO if not an Ultra HRO, where an accident has an effect that, even in the technologically advanced Japan, can threaten the lives of millions and negatively impact their health for many years.

The first successful reactor was made at the University of Chicago under the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi. On December 2, 1942 it made a controlled chain reaction. Five large reactors were built at Hanford, Washington, where U-238 was blasted with neutrons to make plutonium. It was then sent to Los Alamos. Since another isotope of plutonium was also fissionable, there was a fear that a chain reaction could start to soon when the pieces of plutonium where brought

All power plants use fission and to make heat that will be used to make power. Fusion is the two atoms hydrogen and helium which make a heavier atom. This reactor can make more energy and will also not make waste like the fission reactors. Fusion reactors even though not existent are still a highly popular idea

The Brayton cycle is sized based on the quality of the steam that enters the steam turbine. When the heat source is changed from burning coal to the helium turbine exhaust, we must ensure that the turbine exhaust has sufficient thermal energy to generate the required steam.

Small pellets of slightly enriched uranium would be put into containers called fuel rods, then set up into a line, called a fuel assembly, and positioned into a pressure tube. The tube, cooled by pressurized water, is allowed to boil until reaching about 290 degrees Celsius. The assembly can be lifted into and out of the reactor, allowing fuel replenishment during reactor operation. Graphite blocks surround the pressure tubes in order to act as a moderator to “slow down the neutrons released during fission so that a continuous fission chain can be maintained.” Boron carbide control rods are also supposed to absorb neutrons in order to provide automatic, manual, or emergency control. If there were ever a deviation in operation parameters, the rods would be dropped into the core to reduce or stop reactor activity. Although, Chernobyl had certain measures in place to stop a reactor in case of emergency or overheating, the reactors had characteristics deemed unsafe (“Appendix to Nuclear Power Reactors”).

In order to convert nuclear fission into electrical energy, nuclear power plant operators control the energy that is released by closely monitoring searing hot rods of enriched uranium as it is converted into electricity. By submerging these Uranium rods inside a pressure vessel, the water is transformed into steam that in turn drives a turbine to produce high quantities of power. (Marshall Brain and Robert Lamb 9/10/2000)

There are currently 442 active nuclear power reactors worldwide according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. Of all of the reactors worldwide, 14 have been classified as accidents where the public has been exposed to radiation. The most devastating of these incidents was the core meltdown of reactor 4 at Chernobyl, better known as the Chernobyl disaster.

Countless nuclear power plant accidents have been occurring quite frequently since its invention. Some accidents have even been underestimated,

Over the next 39 years, 10 Magnox reactors, 6 Advanced Gas Cooled Reactors and a single Pressurised Water Reactor were commissioned in the UK, along with several nuclear research centers, fuel fabrication facilities and spent fuel recycling plants.

Nuclear reactors were not originally built for electric purposes. In fact, when these reactors were first built, their sole purpose was for research, and the creation of the element plutonium which was to be used in nuclear warfare (Cox, 1995). Thankfully times have changed, to a certain extent, and the nuclear reactors are used for electrical purposes, and other powering supplies only (Cox, 1995). Nuclear reactors can be found world-wide especially in France, as well as in Japan.

industry contains an untapped potential as a leading giant of the industry. The processes of the

It has taken more than 30 years for China to establish a complete nuclear industrial system and accumulate a wealth of experience in the construction and operation of nuclear power. In terms of developing and designing, China has fully equipped with capabilities and conditions of independent designing, constructing, and operating the second generation of the improved nuclear power plant. Moreover, China has completed the independent research and development of the third generation, as well as the re-innovation.

The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) is a type of molten salt reactor which will generate electrical power through nuclear fission. LFTR’s are a hypothetical and innovative solution to the future of power production which are a viable replacement of the current flawed uranium reactors.