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Module 1 Introduction (SANPP)
Module 1 Introduction (SANPP)
Module 1- Introduction
by
Dr. Mukesh Sharma
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Birla institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi
INTRODUCTION
03-10-2020
Electricity ?
Thermal Energy
Sources of Energy (Conventional source of energy)
Coal
Hydro
Solar
Wind OIL
Renewable Energy
(Non - Conventional source of energy)
Safety Aspects of Nuclear Power Plants Dr. Mukesh Sharma
INTRODUCTION
03-10-2020
Thermal
✓ Lot of electricity is obtained.
✓ Most of the power within our country is from the thermal power plants, which burn coal or oil.
✓ Coal fired plant produces lot of smoke.
✓ Smoke contains Sulfur Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide.
✓ This sulfur dioxide goes into the atmosphere, gets into the moisture, becomes Sulfuric Acid.
✓ The Nitrous Oxide becomes Nitric Acid and when this rain water falls, vegetation is destroyed.
✓ In the process of smoke release, lot of radioactivity is also released.
(Coal contains traces of Uranium and Thorium, which after combustion are released to the atmosphere.)
✓ On an average coal fire power plant releases 100 times the radioactive products to the environment
as compared to NPP
Natural Gas
✓ India don't have that many natural gas plants.
✓ Most of the natural gas plants are found in USA
✓ The problem with the natural gas is that, it can cause an explosion.
Hydro Power
Nuclear Power
Continue….
Material requirements
Nuclear Fission
Nuclear Fission
Overview
Nuclear Energy
The energy which is coming out of the fission of some of the nuclei like Uranium and Plutonium and the
heat produced is a gain used to convert water into steam, which runs a turbine generator.
Nuclear Energy
✓ Medicinal application
Nuclear
energy
✓ Oil refining Many more
Oil refining
✓ Hydrogen production
Hydrogen
production
Medicinal Applications
✓ A radio isotope is a chemical element that produces radiation into a patient’s body .
Oil refining
✓ Conversion of the heavier feedstocks ( heavy oils, tar sands, oil shale, and coal ) into
✓ In the case of coal liquefaction, the energy consumed in the liquefaction process is almost
✓ Using fossil fuels to power the conversion of heavy fossil feedstocks into lighter crude
✓ Here instead of using heat from the fossil fuels, nuclear heat is used.
Hydrogen production
Heat
Nuclear Power
➢ It is produced from fission of U-235
➢ Only naturally occurring nuclear fissile material, 500 times more
abundant than gold.
➢ It is present in most rocks and soils as well as in many rivers and sea
water.
➢ Found in concentrations of about 4 ppm in granite, which makes up
60% of the earth’s crust.
➢ In fertilizers, uranium concentrations can be as high as 400 ppm
(0.04%), and some deposits contain uranium at concentrations
greater than 100ppm (0.01%)
generate electricity.
cycle:
Mining
Depending on the depth and concentration of the uranium source, and the conditions of
the surrounding rock, mining companies will extract uranium ore in many ways like,
open pit mining, underground mining or In situ mining.
Milling
To extract the uranium, the ore is crushed in a mill and ground to a fine slurry. The slurry is
then leached in sulfuric acid, which produces a solution of uranium oxide (U3O8). The
concentrate of this solution is called yellowcake.
Refining
A series of chemical processes separate the uranium from impurities, producing high-
purity uranium trioxide (UO3).
Diffusion Methods
✓ Gaseous diffusion forces uranium hexafluoride gas
through a series of semi-permeable membranes.
✓ Each pass through a membrane separates the two
isotopes from each other; it takes over a thousand
passes to make commercial nuclear fuel (3-5% U-
235).
✓ The lighter, smaller U-235 moves through the
membrane easier than the larger heavier U-238.
✓ After the UF6 is enriched by the specified amount,
then it condensed into a liquid and then solidified.
Diffused
U-238 Diffused Diffused Diffused
+ Enriched
U-235 Uranium
Moderators
✓ Light water contains hydrogen which slows down the speed of neutron.
Moderators ✓ (because its mass is identical to that of neutron).
✓ hydrogen has a relatively high neutron absorption capability
Light water
✓ its benefits are similar to light water, but since it contains deuterium
atoms, its neutron absorption is much lower.
✓ high cost of production
Heavy Water
✓ Low absorption of neutrons.
✓ Releases beryllium dust, can cause serious lung diseases
Beryllium
✓ Low absorption.
✓ Combustible
✓ Fast neutrons can cause separation of graphite atoms which can
cause combustion.
Graphite
Elements
-Matter exists in three physical forms; one is solid, liquid, and gas.
-These matters consists of different substances called elements.
-Basically elements are those substances which cannot be broken further into
simple or smaller substances
Atom
-An atom is the smallest particle of an element.
-Atoms are made up of neutrons and protons tightly clustered in a nucleus
-and surrounded by electrons spinning around in a variety of orbits
A=N+Z.
Isotopes
Radioactivity
Nuclear Stability
Nuclear Stability is a concept that helps to identify the stability of an isotope.
Stability ✓ Nucleus holds the neutrons and protons by
line
N-Z line forces which counterbalance each other.
140 ✓ These are proton to neutron binding force and
120 proton- proton repelling forces.
Number of Neutrons, N
N/Z=1
100 ✓ For stable atom they are balanced.
80 ✓ It can be seen that the nuclei having protons<84
60 or neutrons<127 are stable.
40
✓ Hence those nuclei having protons>84 or
20
neutrons > 127 are unstable.
0
20 40 60 80 100 120 ✓ They try to become stable by emitting
Number of Protons, Z
radioactivity in the form of alpha, Beta and
Gamma rays.
Safety Aspects of Nuclear Power Plants Dr. Mukesh Sharma
Basic Concepts
03-10-2020
Nuclear Stability
Gamma rays
Gamma decay, in contrast, occurs when a nucleus is in an excited state
and has too much energy to be stable.
Half Life
✓ A radioactive half-life refers to the amount of time it takes for half of the original
isotope to decay.
✓ For example, if the half-life of a 50.0 gram sample is 3 years, then in 3 years only
25 grams would remain. During the next 3 years, 12.5 grams would remain and
so on.
Multiplication factor
✓ The probability that all neutrons produced by a fission reaction will cause
another fission is not always true.
✓ This is because, some neutrons will leak out of the reactor or absorbed in the
reactor structure or fuel itself, without causing a fission.
✓ To sustain the chain reaction, for each fissioned nucleus, there should be atleast
one neutron that causes fission.
✓ The multiplication factor is the term briefly describing this condition.
✓ K= neutron production from fission in one generation / neutron absorption in the
preceding generation.
✓ The effective multiplication factor is determined by finding out how many
neutrons are leaked out from the reactor.
𝑲𝑬𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 = 𝑲 × 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒂𝒈𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒐𝒓
Safety Aspects of Nuclear Power Plants Dr. Mukesh Sharma
Basic Concepts
03-10-2020
Criticality
✓ When the atom-splitting reactor of a nuclear power plant is operating normally,
it is said to be “critical” or in a state of “criticality.”
✓ “Criticality” indicates that a reactor is operating safely.
✓ In the balanced state of criticality, fuel rods inside a nuclear reactor are
producing and losing a constant number of neutrons, and the nuclear energy
system is stable. (𝑲𝒆𝒇𝒇 = 𝟏)
✓ When the reactor’s neutron production exceeds losses, characterized by
increasing power level, it is considered "supercritical“(𝑲𝒆𝒇𝒇 > 𝟏)
✓ When losses dominate, it is considered "subcritical" and exhibits decreasing
power. (𝑲𝒆𝒇𝒇 < 𝟏)
Reactivity
✓ Reactivity is a measure of how much the reactor is away from the criticality
condition.
✓ In other words, whether it is becoming super critical or subcritical.
✓ If there are 𝑵𝒐 neutrons in the preceding generation then,
✓ There are 𝑵𝒐 × 𝑲𝒆𝒇𝒇 neutrons in the present generation.
✓ The numerical change in neutron population will be (𝑵𝒐 × 𝑲𝒆𝒇𝒇 − 𝑵𝒐 )
✓ The gain or loss in neutron population, expressed as a fraction of present
generation (𝑵𝒐 × 𝑲𝒆𝒇𝒇 ) will be
(𝑁𝑜 × 𝐾𝑒𝑓𝑓 − 𝑁𝑜 )
𝝆=
𝑁𝑜 × 𝐾𝑒𝑓𝑓
Or,
(𝐾𝑒𝑓𝑓 −1)
𝝆=
Safety Aspects of Nuclear Power Plants 𝐾𝑒𝑓𝑓 Dr. Mukesh Sharma
Basic Concepts
03-10-2020
Feedback
Breeding
✓ All commercial light water reactors contains both fissile and fertile materials.
✓ For example, most PWRS use low enriched uranium fuel with enrichment of 235U up to 5%.
✓ Therefore more than 95% of content of fresh fuel is fertile isotope 238U.
✓ During fuel burnup the fertile materials (conversion of 238U to fissile 239Pu known as fuel
breeding) partially replace fissile 235U,
✓ Thus permitting the power reactor to operate longer before the amount of fissile material
decreases to the point where reactor criticality is no longer manageable.
Web resources
✓ https://en.wikipedia.org
✓ https://www.mtholyoke.edu
✓ https://technologystudent.com
✓ https://energypedia.info
✓ https://mekanizmalar.com
Reference books
1. Nuclear reactor Safety- principles and concept by G. Vaidyanathan, Yes Dee Publishing, (2017).
2. Nuclear Reactor Engineering by Samuel Glasstone, CBS Publishers & Distributors (2004)
3. Introduction to Nuclear Engineering by John r. Lamarsh, Pearson Education India (2014)