Introduction to Nuclear

Power
It is the use of Nuclear Fission reactions to
Generate Power
Nuclear energy is the world's largest source
of emission-free energy
Most efficient Power Source per Unit Area
Used in 31 Countries (approx 441 reactors) 1
Accounts for about 16% of all electricity
generated world wide (approx 351 Gigawatts)
1. 2003 Figures

Introduction to Nuclear
Power
The major benefits of Nuclear Power
include:
No Green House Gas emissions
No Air Pollutants such as
CO,SO2,NO,Hg or particulate matter,
thus ensuring Nil contribution to
Acid Rain, Global Warming etc.
Relatively low risk of Work Related
Injury

Introduction to Nuclear
Power
Developed Countries are shifting to Nuclear Power

Introduction to Nuclear
Power

World Nuclear Power Production in Gigawatts

US
North America Region
France
Germany
U. K.
Western Europe Region
Japan
Asia Region
Eastern Europe Region
Former Soviet U. Region

97
109
63
21
12
126
44
66
11
34

Introduction to Nuclear
Power
India Nuclear Power Production in MW
Plants under operation
14 reactors at 6 sites viz., Tarapur, Rawatbhata, Kalpakkam
Narora, Kakrapar and Kaiga

MWe

2720

Plants under construction

2x500 at Tarapur

1000

Plants likely to commence in the current

financial year
2x220, 2x1000, 1x500

2940

Future Plans
2x220,4x500,10x500,6x1000

13440

Total

20100

NPP IN INDIA

Uranium mining- World (4,7

)

Uranium miningIndia

(3)

Advantages over
coal

One gram of fissionable uranium can

produce a million times more heat than
one gram of coal.
For 400MW of electricity, only 20 kg of
uranium fuel is required per day. In
comparison, a coal burning thermal power
station of the same capacity would require
about 4000 tonnes of coal daily

Disadvantages
The problem of radioactive waste is still an
unsolved one.
High risks
Nuclear power plants as well as nuclear waste
could be preferred targets for terrorist attacks.
Radioactive waste is produced can be used for
the production of nuclear weapons.
Uranium is a scarce resource

The Underlying Principle

Nuclear Fission
In Physics, fission is a nuclear process, i.e.,
it occurs in the nucleus of an atom. Fission
occurs when the Nucleus splits into two or
more smaller nuclei plus some by-products.
These by-products include free neutrons and
photons (usually gamma rays). Fission
releases substantial amounts of energy (the
strong nuclear force binding energy).
The use of this energy for generation of
electricity is the essence of nuclear power
generation.

The Underlying Principle

Radioactivity was discovered by Sir James
Chadwick (1932)
Later Enrico Fermi experimented and Physicist
Lise Meitner and Otto Frish discovered Chain
Reactions
Chicago Pile

The first controlled chain reaction was

conducted in December 1942, resulted
in heat Generation of 2 kW using
Uranium
The Manhattan Project:

Atomic bomb

The Underlying Principle

Fission can be
induced by several
methods, including
bombarding the
nucleus of a fissile
atom with a free
neutron moving at
the right speed
Neutron + U-235
--> fission products
+ more neutrons +
energy
The process releases a lot of energy compared to chemical
reactions.
Energy released by a fission event is approximately 200 MeV.

Nuclear fission
process

How does fission work

A neutron hits a uranium nucleus.
The nucleus becomes unstable and needs to
release energy.
The nucleus breaks releasing energy, neutrons
and 2 smaller atoms.
The 2 smaller atoms formed are called fission
fragments.

 When the neutrons are released during fission,

they go on to hit 2/3 other uranium nuclei.
This continues and is called a chain reaction
In a nuclear reactor the chain reaction is
controlled.
As the control rods are removed the chain
reaction increases, and if we want to slow the
reaction control rods are inserted.

Block Schematic for Nuclear Power Plant

A Nuclear Power Plant is basically a Thermal Power

Plant in which steam is produced in a Nuclear Reactor
rather than in a Conventional Boiler

Nuclear Power Plant Working

Components of a Nuclear Power Plant

Basic Reactor Model

4.Coolant

Turbine

5.Steamgenerator

3.Controlrod

1.Fuel

2.Moderator

6.

7.

Pump

8.

Generato
r

Major components of Nuclear

Reactor
TYPE
DESCRIPTION
Fuel

These are Fissile Elements like U235 PU239 arranged in the form of Bundled
rods

Control
Rods /
Nuclear
Poison

A control rod is of chemical elements capable of absorbing many neutrons

without fissioning themselves (E.g. silver, indium and cadmium)
Control rods are usually inserted into guide tubes within a fuel element. A
control rod is removed from or inserted into the central core of a nuclear
reactor in order to control the neutron flux increase or decrease the
number of neutrons which will split further uranium atoms. This in turn
affects the thermal power of the reactor, the amount of steam produced,
and hence the electricity generated.

Moderator

Moderator is a medium which reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby

turning them
into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction
involving U235.
Commonly used moderators include regular (light) water, used in roughly
75% of the worlds reactors, solid graphite (20%) and heavy water (D2O)
(5%). Beryllium has been used in some experimental reactor types, and
hydrocarbons have been suggested as a possibility.

Coolant

Coolant is a medium used to transfer heat generated in the Nuclear

Reactors core to the heat exchanger to produce Steam for driving Steam
Turbines. Light Water, Heavy Water, Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen, Molten
Sodium etc. are some commonly used coolants

Nuclear Power Reactor Fuel

Uranium Fuel Cycle

Types of Nuclear Reactor

1. The Boiling Water Reactor (BWR): This is the simplest

of all reactors. Water absorbs heat from the reactions in the core
and is directly driven to the turbines. After condensing the water
is pumped back to the reactor core

2. Pressurized water reactors, (PWR): In this type of reactor,

the heat is dissipated from the core using highly pressurized water
(about 160 bar) to achieve a high temperature and avoid boiling within
the core. The cooling water transfers its heat to the secondary system in
a steam generator

3. Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), : In this

type of reactors, fuel bundles are inserted into the Heat Exchanger
where a heavy water moderator is circulated to provide cooling in
addition to moderating neutrons. This heavy water is then
circulated to the steam generator to transfer its heat and then
pumped back to the reactor. The steam is a secondary circuit as
above and is used to drive a turbine assembly before condensing

4. The Gas Cooled Reactor (GCR) : It uses CO2 gas to remove

heat from the core. This is then piped through the steam
generator where heat is removed from the gas and it can then
be re-circulated to the reactor. As usual steam generated is used
to drive the turbine and generate electricity, condensed then
recirculated. Graphite is used as a moderator to allow energy
production by un-enriched uranium.

5. The Light Water Graphite Reactor (LWGR): Here

Graphite replaces heavy water as moderator. Light water is used to
remove heat from the core for transfer to steam drums. The steam
evolved in these is used subsequently to power turbines.

6. The Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR): It uses a Plutonium fuel

rather than Uranium. The Pu is surrounded by rods of U-238 which
absorb neutrons and are transmitted into Pu-239 which undergoes
fission to generate energy. As the plutonium in the core becomes
depleted it creates or breeds more plutonium from the Uranium
around it.

Nuclear Waste
management

Radioactive wastes from the nuclear

reactors and reprocessing plants are
treated and stored at each site
High level waste is currently kept in
storage facilities and will finally be
put into specially engineered
underground repositories.
Research on final disposal of highlevel and long-lived wastes in a
geological repository is in progress .

Technology advancements in nuclear

power reactors

Generation II
reactor

A generation II reactor is a design

(2,5
)

classification for a nuclear reactor,

and refers to the class of commercial
reactors built up to the end of the
1990s.

Prototypical generation II reactors

Generation III reactors

(2,5
)

Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) A GE

design that first went online in Japan in 1996.
Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (APWR)
developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Enhanced CANDU 6 (EC6) developed by Atomic
Energy of Canada Limited.
VVER-1000/392 (PWR) in various modifications
into AES-91 and AES-92.

Generation IV reactor
Generation I V reactors(Gen IV)
are a set of theoretical nuclear
reactor designs currently being
researched.
commercial construction before
2030, with the exception of a
version of the Very High
Temperature Reactor (VHTR)
called the Next Generation
Nuclear Plant (NGNP).
Research into these reactor
types was officially started by

(2,5
)

Goals of Gen IV
Improve nuclear safety.
Improve proliferation Resistance.
Minimize waste and natural resource
utilization.
Decrease the cost to build and run
such plants.
Increase life time of nuclear reactors.

Thermal

Reactor types
reactors

1. Very-hightemperature
reactor (VHTR)
2. Supercriticalwater-cooled
reactor (SCWR)
3. Molten-salt
reactor (MSR)

Fast

reactors
1. Gas-cooled fast
reactor (GFR)
2. Sodium-cooled
fast reactor (SFR)
3. Lead-cooled
fast reactor (LFR)

 VHTR:- Concept uses a graphite-moderated core with

a once-through uranium fuel cycle, using helium or
molten salt as the coolant.
SCWR:- Concept that uses supercritical water as the
working fluid. It could operate at much higher
temperatures than both current PWRs and BWRs.
MSR:- Nuclear reactor where the coolant is a molten
salt. Nuclear fuel dissolved in the molten fluoride salt
as UF4 or ThF4.

 FR:- Fast-neutron spectrum and closed fuel cycle. The

reactor is helium-cooled. Based on Brayton cycle gas
turbine.
SFR:- Builds on two closely related existing projects,
the liquid metal fast breeder reactor and the Integral
Fast Reactor.
LFR:-fast-neutron-spectrum lead or lead/bismuth
eutectic (LBE) liquid-metal-cooled reactor with a
closed fuel cycle.

Advantages
Nuclear waste that lasts a few
centuries instead of millennia.
100-300 times more energy
yield from the same amount of
nuclear fuel.
The ability to consume existing
nuclear waste in the production

Facts of disaster
6-7 % heat still decay out from core even in shutdown
condition which is must to remove.
In emergency shutdown back up gens ets take 60-75
seconds to achieve full load.
Test was conducted with night shift workers instead of
trained day shift workers.
Production of xenon reduced the stable power level
required for test causing withrawal of more control rods.
Human error by Er. Toptunov who inserted control rods
in the core.

 To increase power output control rods were

removed instantly in large number causing rise in
temperature and hence massive power spike
occurred which damaged the fuel rods also .
As power was around 700 mw actual test begins
and turbine generator went off and ext. gensets
resumed the working of ECCS.
Due to some alarm triggering 4 of 8 main
circulation pumps went off air causing serious
steam voids in coolant process thus increasing the
temperature of core.

 To reduce the increased power output control

rods are allowed to get in the core which was

already damaged. So only1/3 part of rods was
in the core.
Consequently power output rose up to

33GW(10 times of peak output).

Hydrogen blast took place first blowing off the

secondary containment and then flammable

graphite blasted with huge impact involving
radioactive core also.

Fukushima Daiichi Event(2,5

)

Unit 1
439 MW

11 March 2011

Fukushima Event

The Fukushima nuclear facilities were

damaged in a magnitude 8.9 earthquake
on March 11 (Japan time), centered
offshore of the Sendai region, which
contains the capital Tokyo.

Plant designed for magnitude 8.2

earthquake. An 8.9 magnitude quake is
7 times in greater in magnitude.

Serious secondary effects followed

including a significant tsunami, significant
aftershocks and a major fire at a fossil fuel
installation.

Waste Management
Disposal of waste of nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant wastes can be classified

Low level radioactive

waste
High level radioactive
waste

Waste Management
Low level radioactive waste
It includes cooling water pipes,radiation
suits,discarded fuel elements cans and
gloves
Low level radioactive waste are easy to
dispose off
Low level radioactive wastes are stored
under sea bed and large stable geologic
formations on land

Waste Management
High level radioactive waste
It includes materials from the core of the nuclear
reactor.
Plutonium, Uranium, Control rods and other
radioactive elements made during fission
Difficult to dispose

Waste Management
High level radioactive waste disposal
These radioactive materials are stored in shielded
storage vaults
Shielded vaults are stored in deep salt mines
Sometimes high level nuclear waste can be sunk
to the bottom of the sea & oceans
Fired into the sun or into a long term stable orbit.
Transmutation

Waste Management
Shielding of Nuclear reactor
Necessary to guard personnel and delicate
instruments
Materials used are lead, Concrete, Steel and
cadmium
Water is used to slow down fast neutrons
Boron and steel are employed for absorption of
thermal neutrons
Heavy metals like lead is required to act as
thermal shield and to absorb gama rays