Different Types of Nuclear Reactors - Essay Example

The energy released is usually in heat form. After heat is emitted, the coolant lifts it out of the reactor. The coolant used in most instances is plain water. After the coolant has heated up, it proceeds to the turbine chamber where it drives a shaft. This makes nuclear reactors exotic heat sources (Hargraves 45). The reactor core The reactor core generates heat and stores all nuclear fuel. It has uranium (low enriched, not less than 5% U-235). The coolant Material passing through the core is called the coolant.

It also transfers heat usually from fuel to the turbine. A coolant can be normal water, liquid sodium, or heavy water. The turbine receives heat from the coolant and then generates it for electricity. This takes the same method as it happens in fossil fuel plants. Containment This is the general high-density steel structure separating the reactor from the environment. Most are dome-shaped and usually reinforced in concrete. Cooling towers These are used in Plants to dump excessive heat that has not been transformed into energy.

They only emit vapour and clean water commonly referred to as hyperbolic icons. Different types of nuclear reactors There exists a variety of nuclear reactors usually of different purposes, fuel cycles, coolants, and different fuels. Some of them include a pressurised water reactor This is the most prevalent type of nuclear reactor. It uses normal regular water as a coolant. The cooling water is kept at very high pressures to keep it from boiling. It transfers heat to the secondary coolant loop after passing through the heat exchanger.

This then keeps the turbine in motion. This type of reactor uses oxide fuel pellets compressed in zirconium tubes (Frog 40). This type of reactor has its pros and cons depending on circumstances. On the positive side, it has the void coefficient, which is strong and negative. The reactor easily cools down when water begins to bubble. Secondly, the secondary loop prevents radioactive materials from reaching the turbines, which eases maintenance. Procedures have been optimized due to accumulated operating experiences.

On the other side, coolants under heavy pressure have a high likelihood of escaping in the eventuality a pipe breaks. This reactor is not able to breed new fuel as a result of it being susceptible to uranium shortage (Weston 56-58). Canada Deuterium-Uranium Reactors (CANDUs) First used in Canada, they usually contain heavy water with extra neutrons in hydrogen. This therefore results in Deuterium taking the place of pure hydrogen. Since Deuterium has limited capacity in absorbing neutrons compared to hydrogen, CANDUs operate strictly on natural uranium and are not enriched.

Its advantage is that it needs limited uranium enrichment. For this reason, it can usually be refuelled when in operation which keeps capacity factors high. They possess a flexible nature and use different types of fuel. Its demerits are based on safety concerns since some variants possess positive coolant coefficients. Sodium-Cooled Reactor Sodium metal, which is liquid, cools down these types of reactors. Since sodium is heavier than hydrogen, it enables neutrons to move at higher speeds.

These types of reactors use oxide or metal fuels and have the potential to burn everything thrown at them (Uranium, higher actinides, plutonium and thorium). The advantage of these reactors is that they can breed their fuel. This plays a major role in conserving additional costs. These kinds of reactors have also the potential to burn their waste. Excellent thermal properties possessed by sodium and metallic fuel necessitate a passive safe operation. The reactor shuts down by itself and can decay heat without the involvement of backup systems (Hamilton 71). The demerits established from research have exposed that sodium being very reactive with water and air can cause dangerous sodium fires in the occurrence of leakages.