INTRODUCTION

NUCLEAR ENERGY IS ENERGY RELEASED FROM THE

ITS

NUCLEUS OF AN ATOM BY THE CONVERSION OF MASS TO ENERGY.

CONSISTENT WITH ALBERT EINSTEINS

E=MC IN WHICH E = ENERGY, M = THE CONSTANT SPEED OF

FORMULA

MASS AND C =

LIGHT.

INTRODUCTION
NUCLEAR ENERGY IS RELEASED BY ONE OF THREE
NUCLEAR REACTIONS: FISSION: THE BREAKING OF THE FORCES OF AN ATOM'S NUCLEUS. BINDING

FUSION: THE FUSING TOGETHER OF ATOMIC PARTICLES.

DECAY: WHICH IS THE NATURAL AND MUCH SLOWER FORM OF FISSION.

HISTORY
NUCLEAR ENERGY WAS FIRST DISCOVERED
ACCIDENTALLY BY FRENCH PHYSICIST HENRI BECQUEREL IN 1896 WHEN HE FOUND PHOTOGRAPHIC

PLATES STORED NEAR ALUMINUM COMPOUNDS

BEHAVED AS THOUGH THEY HAD BEEN EXPOSED TO LIGHT IN A MANNER SIMILAR TO THE RECENTLY

DISCOVERED X-RAY.
DURING WORLD WAR II THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA USED NUCLEAR ENERGY TO POWER

SUBMARINES AND TO DESTROY THE JAPANESE CITIES

OF HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI BY MEANS OF THE ATOMIC BOMB.

NUCLEAR REACTIONS
THE RELEASE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY IS ASSOCIATED WITH CHANGES FROM LESS STABLE TO MORE STABLE NUCLEI AND PRODUCES FAR MORE ENERGY FOR A GIVEN MASS OF FUEL THAN ANY OTHER SOURCE OF ENERGY.
IN FISSION PROCESSES, A FISSIONABLE NUCLEUS ABSORBS A NEUTRON, BECOMES UNSTABLE, AND SPLITS INTO TWO NEARLY EQUAL NUCLEI. IN FUSION PROCESSES, TWO NUCLEI COMBINE TO FORM A SINGLE, HEAVIER NUCLEUS. THE MOST STABLE NUCLEI THOSE WITH THE HIGHEST BINDING ENERGIES PER NUCLEON HOLDING THEIR COMPONENTS TOGETHER ARE IN THE MIDDLE RANGE OF THE ATOMIC WTS WITH THE MAXIMUM STABILITY AT WEIGHTS NEAR 60.

NUCLEAR REACTIONS
THUS, FISSION, WHICH PRODUCES TWO LIGHTER FRAGMENTS, OCCURS FOR VERY HEAVY NUCLEI, WHILE FUSION OCCURS FOR THE LIGHTEST NUCLEI.

IN NUCLEAR PHYSICS, A NUCLEAR REACTION IS A PROCESS IN WHICH TWO NUCLEI OR NUCLEAR PARTICLES COLLIDE, TO PRODUCE PRODUCTS DIFFERENT TO THE INITIAL PRODUCTS. IN PRINCIPLE A REACTION CAN INVOLVE MORE THAN TWO PARTICLES COLLIDING, BUT SUCH AN EVENT IS EXCEPTIONALLY RARE. IF THE PARTICLES COLLIDE AND SEPARATE WITHOUT CHANGING (EXCEPT POSSIBLY IN ENERGY LEVELS), THE PROCESS IS CALLED A COLLISION RATHER THAN A REACTION.

NUCLEAR FISSION
EINSTEINS MASS ENERGY EQUATION
ACCORDING TO EINSTEIN THEORY OF RELATIVITY "MASS AND ENERGY ARE INTERCONVERTABLE". EINSTEIN ESTABLISHED A RELATION BETWEEN MASS AND ENERGY KNOWN AS "EINSTEINS MASS ENERGY EQUATION". E = mc2 where E = Energy m = Mass C = Velocity of light (3x108 m/sec)

NUCLEAR FISSION FISSION IN

235 u 92

"The process in which a heavy nucleus in broken into two lighter nuclei with the release of energy is called Nuclear Fission." OR The disintegration of a heavy nucleus after capturing neutron with the release of energy is called "Nuclear Fission."

NUCLEAR FISSION
In 1939, Hann and Stressman discovered that fission can be produced by bombarding 92u235 with slow neutrons. When 92u235 is bombarded with neutron, it is broken down into two lighter nuclei and about 200Mev energy is released in this process.

NUCLEAR FISSION
EQUATION OF FISSION 1+ u235 236 n u 0 92 92
144+ Kr90+3 n1+energy Ba 56 36 0

Alongwith the fission products i.e. barium and krypton, three neutrons are also obtained. Fission reaction in uranium can be explained by the following schematic diagram.

NUCLEAR FISSION
FISSION CHAIN REACTION In one fission of 92u235 nucleus, about three neutrons are obtained. These fast moving neutrons undergo successive collision with the other 92u235 nuclei. As more and more nuclei are broken by the neutrons, more and more neutrons are obtained and uncontrolled fission process is started which is referred to as FISSION CHAIN REACTION.

NUCLEAR FISSION

If it is not controlled then all the 92u235 atoms are broken and a large amount of energy is produced. An interesting fact is that no fission chain reaction will take place if the amount of uranium is less than a certain mass known as CRITICAL MASS.

NUCLEAR FISSION
If, on average, exactly one of the free neutrons from each fission hits another U-235 nucleus and causes it to split, then the mass of uranium is said to be critical.

If, on average, less than one of the free neutrons hits another U-235 atom, then the mass is subcritical. Eventually, induced fission will end in the mass.
If, on average, more than one of the free neutrons hits another U-235 atom, then the mass is supercritical. It will heat up.

NUCLEAR FISSION
Energy Released From Each Fission
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ kinetic energy of fission products 165 gamma rays 7 kinetic energy of the neutrons 6 energy from fission products 7 gamma rays from fission products 6 anti-neutrinos from fission products 9 MeV MeV MeV MeV MeV MeV

200 MeV

NUCLEAR FISSION

Atom Bomb
Uranium 238, was not suitable for a nuclear weapon. There is a fairly high probability that an incident neutron would be captured to form uranium 239 instead of causing a fission. However, uranium 235 has a high fission probability.
Of natural uranium, only 0.7% is uranium 235. This meant that a large amount of uranium was needed to obtain the necessary quantities of uranium 235. Also, uranium 235 cannot be separated chemically from uranium 238, since the isotopes are chemically similar.

NUCLEAR FISSION
Detonation Sequence

1. The high explosive surrounding the fissile material is ignited. 2. A compressional shock wave begins to move inward. The shock wave moves faster than the speed of sound and creates a large increase in pressure. The shock wave impinges on all points on the surface of the sphere of the fissile material in the bomb core at the same instant. This starts the compression process.

NUCLEAR FISSION
3. As the core density increases, the mass becomes critical, and then supercritical (where the chain reactions grows exponentially).

4. Now the initiator is released, producing many neutrons. The chain reaction continues until the energy generated inside the bomb becomes so great that the internal pressure due to the energy of the fission fragments exceed the implosion pressure due to the shock wave.

NUCLEAR FISSION

Nuclear Power Plant

1. To build a nuclear reactor, what you need is some mildly enriched uranium. 2. Typically, the uranium is formed into pellets with approximately the same diameter as a dime and a length of an inch or so. 3. The pellets are arranged into long rods, and the rods are collected together into bundles. 4. The bundles are then typically submerged in water inside a pressure vessel. The water acts as a coolant. 5. In order for the reactor to work, the bundle, submerged in water, must be slightly supercritical. 6. That means, left to its own devices, the uranium would eventually overheat and melt.

6. To prevent this, control rods made of a material that absorbs neutrons are inserted into the bundle using a mechanism that can raise or lower the control rods.
7. Raising and lowering the control rods allow operators to control the rate of the nuclear reaction. When an operator wants the uranium core to produce more heat, the rods are raised out of the uranium bundle. 8. To create less heat, the rods are lowered into the uranium bundle. The rods can also be lowered completely into the uranium bundle to shut the reactor down in the case of an accident or to change the fuel.

9. The uranium bundle acts as an extremely highenergy source of heat. It heats the water and turns it to steam. The steam drives a steam turbine, which spins a generator to produce power. 10. In some reactors, the steam from the reactor goes through a secondary, intermediate heat exchanger to convert another loop of water to steam, which drives the turbine. The advantage to this design is that the radioactive water/steam never contacts the turbine.

11. Also, in some reactors, the coolant fluid in contact with the reactor core is gas (carbon dioxide) or liquid metal (sodium, potassium); these types of reactors allow the core to be operated at higher temperatures.

12. The reactor's pressure vessel is typically housed inside a concrete liner that acts as a radiation shield. That liner is housed within a much larger steel containment vessel. 13. This vessel contains the reactor core as well the hardware (cranes, etc.) that allows workers at the plant to refuel and maintain the reactor. The steel containment vessel is intended to prevent leakage of any radioactive gases or fluids from the plant.

Uranium-235 is not the only possible fuel for a power plant. Another fissionable material is plutonium-239. Plutonium-239 can be created easily by bombarding U-238 with neutrons -something that happens all the time in a nuclear reactor.

NUCLEAR FUSION
"The process of forming heavy nucleus from two or more light nuclei in which energy is released is called "NUCLEAR FUSION.

or
The combining of two lighter nuclei to form a relatively heavier nucleus with the release of energy is called "NUCLEAR FUSION."

When 1H2 and 1H3 nuclei are brought together they form 2He4 nucleus with the release of energy.
2+ H3 He4+ n1+Energy. H 1 1 2 0

NUCLEAR FUSION
Nuclear Fusion is the energy-producing process which takes place continuously in the sun and stars. In the core of the sun at temperatures of 10-15 million degrees Celsius, Hydrogen is converted to Helium providing enough energy to sustain life on earth. For energy production on earth different fusion reactions are involved. The most suitable reaction occurs between the nuclei of the two heavy forms (isotopes) of Hydrogen - Deuterium (D) and Tritium (T); eventually reactions involving just Deuterium or Deuterium and Helium (3He) may be used.

NUCLEAR FUSION

1. Energy release during a fusion process in greater than that of fission.

2. To produce a fusion process a very high temperature is required to over come repulsion between positive nuclei.

NUCLEAR FUSION
If light nuclei are forced together, they will fuse with a yield of energy because the mass of the combination will be less than the sum of the masses of the individual nuclei. If the combined nuclear mass is less than that of iron at the peak of the binding energy curve, then the nuclear particles will be more tightly bound than they were in the lighter nuclei, and that decrease in mass comes off in the form of energy according to the Einstein relationship. For elements heavier than iron, fission will yield energy.

NUCLEAR FUSION

Advantages of Fusion
Fuels are plentiful.

NUCLEAR FUSION

A vast, new source of energy. Inherently safe since any malfunction results in a rapid shutdown. No atmospheric pollution leading to acid rain or "greenhouse" effect. Radioactivity of the reactor structure, caused by the neutrons, decays rapidly and can be minimised by careful selection of low-activation materials. Provision for geological time-span disposal is not needed.

NUCLEAR FUSION Fuels

Deuterium is abundant as it can be extracted from all forms of water. If all the world's electricity were to be provided by fusion power stations, Deuterium supplies would last for millions of years. Tritium does not occur naturally and will be manufactured from Lithium within the machine.

Lithium, the lightest metal, is plentiful in the earth's crust. If all the world's electricity were to be provided by fusion, known reserves would last for at least 1000 years.

NUCLEAR FUSION
Conditions for a Fusion Reaction Temperature

Fusion reactions occur at a sufficient rate only at very high temperatures. Over 100 million deg. C is needed for the Deuterium-Tritium reaction whilst other reactions require even higher temperatures.
The hot plasma must be well isolated away from material surfaces in order to avoid cooling the plasma and releasing material atoms (impurities) that would contaminate and further cool the plasma.

Energy Confinement

The efficiency of the magnetic insulation is measured by a quantity called the Energy Confinement Time. This is the characteristic timescale for plasma cooling when the source of heat is removed.
Density

The density of fuel ions must be sufficiently large for fusion reactions to take place at the required rate. The fusion power generated is reduced if the fuel is diluted by impurity atoms released from surrounding material surfaces or by the accumulation of Helium "ash" from the fusion reaction. As fuel ions are burnt in the fusion process they must be replaced by new fuel and the Helium ash must be removed.

NUCLEAR FUSION
Numerical values for D-T Reaction Plasma temperature: (T) 100-200 million deg. C Energy Confinement Time: (t) 1-2 seconds Central Density in Plasma: (n) 2-3 x 1020 particles m-3 (approx. 1/1000 gram m-3)