The CANDU, for Canada Deuterium Uranium, is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide moderator and its use of uranium fuel. CANDU reactors were first developed in the late 1950s and 1960s by a partnership between Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario, Canadian General Electric, and other companies.
In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller, lighter nuclei. The fission process often produces free neutrons and gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay.
Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor (LWR), the other types being boiling water reactors (BWRs) and supercritical water reactors (SCWRs). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) is pumped under high pressure to the reactor core where it is heated by the energy released by the fission of atoms. The heated water then flows to a steam generator where it transfers its thermal energy to a secondary system where steam is generated and flows to turbines which, in turn, spin an electric generator. In contrast to a boiling water reactor, pressure in the primary coolant loop prevents the water from boiling within the reactor. All LWRs use ordinary water as both coolant and neutron moderator.
The light-water reactor (LWR) is a type of thermal-neutron reactor that uses normal water, as opposed to heavy water, as both its coolant and neutron moderator – furthermore a solid form of fissile elements is used as fuel. Thermal-neutron reactors are the most common type of nuclear reactor, and light-water reactors are the most common type of thermal-neutron reactor.
A fuel element failure is a rupture in a nuclear reactor's fuel cladding that allows the nuclear fuel or fission products, either in the form of dissolved radioisotopes or hot particles, to enter the reactor coolant or storage water.
The Advanced CANDU reactor (ACR), or ACR-1000, is a Generation III+ nuclear reactor designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). It combines features of the existing CANDU pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) with features of light-water cooled pressurized water reactors (PWR). From CANDU, it takes the heavy water moderator, which gives the design an improved neutron economy that allows it to burn a variety of fuels. However, it replaces the heavy water cooling loop with one containing conventional light water, greatly reducing costs. The name refers to its design power in the 1,000 MWe class, with the baseline around 1,200 MWe.
The very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR), or high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), is a Generation IV reactor concept that uses a graphite-moderated nuclear reactor with a once-through uranium fuel cycle. The VHTR is a type of high-temperature reactor (HTR) that can conceptually have an outlet temperature of 1000 °C. The reactor core can be either a "prismatic block" or a "pebble-bed" core. The high temperatures enable applications such as process heat or hydrogen production via the thermochemical sulfur–iodine cycle.
A nuclear reactor core is the portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the nuclear reactions take place and the heat is generated. Typically, the fuel will be low-enriched uranium contained in thousands of individual fuel pins. The core also contains structural components, the means to both moderate the neutrons and control the reaction, and the means to transfer the heat from the fuel to where it is required, outside the core.
Nuclear reactor physics is the branch of science that deals with the study and application of chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of fission in a nuclear reactor for the production of energy. Most nuclear reactors use a chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of nuclear fission in fissile material, releasing both energy and free neutrons. A reactor consists of an assembly of nuclear fuel, usually surrounded by a neutron moderator such as regular water, heavy water, graphite, or zirconium hydride, and fitted with mechanisms such as control rods that control the rate of the reaction.
The advanced heavy-water reactor (AHWR) is the latest Indian design for a next-generation nuclear reactor that burns thorium in its fuel core. It is slated to form the third stage in India's three-stage fuel-cycle plan. This phase of the fuel cycle plan is supposed to be built starting with a 300MWe prototype in 2016.
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor. It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it may have considerably different isotopic constituents.
CANFLEX; the name is derived from its function: CANDU FLEXible fuelling, is an advanced fuel bundle design developed by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL), along with the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) for use in CANDU design nuclear reactors. The designers claim that it will deliver many benefits to current and future CANDU reactors-using natural uranium or other advanced nuclear fuel cycles. These include greater operating and safety margins, extended plant life, better economics and increased power.
KS 150 is a Gas Cooled Reactor using Heavy Water as a moderator (GCHWR) nuclear reactor design. A single example, A-1, was constructed at the Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant in Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia. The power plant suffered a series of accidents, the worst being an accident on February 22, 1977 rated INES-4. Since 1979 the plant has been undergoing decommissioning.
A traveling-wave reactor (TWR) is a proposed type of nuclear fission reactor that can convert fertile material into usable fuel through nuclear transmutation, in tandem with the burnup of fissile material. TWRs differ from other kinds of fast-neutron and breeder reactors in their ability to use fuel efficiently without uranium enrichment or reprocessing, instead directly using depleted uranium, natural uranium, thorium, spent fuel removed from light water reactors, or some combination of these materials. The concept is still in the development stage and no TWR have ever been built.
The Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) was established in 1971 as a major industrial unit of India's Department of Atomic Energy, for the supply of nuclear fuel bundles and reactor core components. It is a unique facility where natural and enriched uranium fuel, zirconium alloy cladding and reactor core components are manufactured under one roof.
The Ultra-High Temperature Reactor Experiment (UHTREX) was an experimental gas-cooled nuclear reactor run at Los Alamos National Laboratory between 1959 and 1971 as part of research into reducing the cost of nuclear power. Its purpose was to test and compare the advantages of using a simple fuel against the disadvantages of a contaminated cooling loop. It first achieved full power in 1969.
Clementine was the code name for the world's first fast-neutron reactor. It was an experimental-scale reactor. The maximum output was 25 kW and was fueled by plutonium and cooled by liquid mercury. Clementine was located at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Clementine was designed and built in 1945–1946 and first achieved criticality in 1946 and full power in 1949. The reactor was named after the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine." The similarities to the song were that the reactor was located in a deep canyon and the reactor operators were 49'ers, as 49 was one of the code names for plutonium at the time.
