A nuclear reactor, formerly known as an atomic pile, is a device used to initiate and control a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid, which in turn runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ship's propellers or turn electrical generators' shafts. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, or for production of weapons-grade plutonium. Research reactors are run only for research. As of early 2019, the IAEA reports there are 454 nuclear power reactors and 226 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world.
Neutron scattering, the irregular dispersal of free neutrons by matter, can refer to either the naturally occurring physical process itself or to the man-made experimental techniques that use the natural process for investigating materials. The natural/physical phenomenon is of elemental importance in nuclear engineering and the nuclear sciences. Regarding the experimental technique, understanding and manipulating neutron scattering is fundamental to the applications used in crystallography, physics, physical chemistry, biophysics, and materials research.
DIDO was a materials testing nuclear reactor at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, Oxfordshire in the United Kingdom. It used enriched uranium metal fuel, and heavy water as both neutron moderator and primary coolant. There was also a graphite neutron reflector surrounding the core. In the design phase, DIDO was known as AE334 after its engineering design number.
The Open-pool Australian lightwater reactor (OPAL) is a 20 megawatt (MW) pool-type nuclear research reactor. Officially opened in April 2007, it replaced the High Flux Australian Reactor as Australia's only nuclear reactor, and is located at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) Research Establishment in Lucas Heights, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney. Both OPAL and its predecessor have been commonly known as simply the Lucas Heights reactor, after their location.
The Petten nuclear reactors are nuclear research reactors in Petten, Netherlands. There are two reactors on the premises of the Petten research centre: a high flux reactor and a low flux reactor.
The National Research Universal (NRU) reactor was a 135 MW nuclear research reactor built in the Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario, one of Canada’s national science facilities. It was a multipurpose science facility that served three main roles. It generated isotopes used to treat or diagnose over 20 million people in 80 countries every year. It was the neutron source for the NRC Canadian Neutron Beam Centre: a materials research centre that grew from the Nobel Prize-winning work of Bertram Brockhouse. It was the test bed for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited to develop fuels and materials for the CANDU reactor. At the time of its retirement on March 31, 2018, it was the world's oldest operating nuclear reactor.
The SLOWPOKE is a low-energy, tank-in-pool type nuclear research reactor designed by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) in the late 1960s. John W. Hilborn is the scientist most closely associated with its design. It is beryllium-reflected with a very low critical mass but provides neutron fluxes higher than available from a small particle accelerator or other radioactive sources.
The High Flux Isotope Reactor is a nuclear research reactor located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Operating at 85 MW, HFIR is one of the highest flux reactor-based sources of neutrons for condensed matter physics research in the United States, and it provides one of the highest steady-state neutron fluxes of any research reactor in the world. The thermal and cold neutrons produced by HFIR are used to study physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and biology. The intense neutron flux, constant power density, and constant-length fuel cycles are used by more than 500 researchers each year for neutron scattering research into the fundamental properties of condensed matter. HFIR has approximately 600 users each year for both scattering and in-core research.
The McMaster Nuclear Reactor (MNR) is a 5MWth pool-type reactor located on the campus of McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
CROCUS is a research reactor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, a research institute and university in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The Maria reactor is Poland's second nuclear research reactor and the only one still in use. It is located at Świerk-Otwock, near Warsaw and named in honor of Maria Skłodowska-Curie. It is the only reactor of Polish design.
The MIT Nuclear Research Reactor (MITR) serves the research purposes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is a tank-type 6 MW reactor that is moderated and cooled by light water and uses heavy water as a reflector. It is the second largest university based research reactor in the U.S. and has been in operation since 1958. It is the fourth-oldest operating reactor in the country.
The Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz is the leading German research reactor. It is a world best reactor for neutron source, and is officially named Forschungs-Neutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz in honor of the physicist Heinz Maier-Leibnitz who had conducted a highly successful research program at its predecessor, the FRM I.
A neutron research facility is most commonly a big laboratory operating a large-scale neutron source that provides thermal neutrons to a suite of research instruments. The neutron source usually is a research reactor or a spallation source. In some cases, a smaller facility will provide high energy neutrons using existing neutron generator technologies.
The Washington State University Reactor (WSUR) is housed in the Washington State University Nuclear Radiation Center (WSUNRC), and was completed in 1961. The (then) Washington State College Reactor was the brainchild of Harold W. Dodgen, a former researcher on the Manhattan Project where he earned his PhD from 1943 to 1946. He secured funding for the ambitious 'Reactor Project' from the National Science Foundation, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the College administration totaling $479,000. Dodgen's basis for constructing a reactor was that the College was primly located as a training facility for the Hanford site, as well as Idaho National Laboratory because there was no other research reactor in the West at that time. After completing the extensive application and design process with the help of contractors from General Electric they broke ground in August 1957 and the first criticality was achieved on March 7, 1961 at a power level of 1W. They gradually increased power over the next year to achieve their maximum licensed operating power of 100 kW.
The Netherlands' only commercial nuclear reactor is Borssele, which became operational in 1973 and as of 2011 produces about 4% of the country’s electricity according to the world nuclear association. IEA statistics, however, identify only about 1.3% of total primary energy supply (TPES). The older Dodewaard nuclear power plant was a test reactor that was later attached to the national grid but was closed in 1997.
Neutron capture therapy (NCT) is a noninvasive therapeutic modality for treating locally invasive malignant tumors such as primary brain tumors, recurrent head and neck cancer, and cutaneous and extracutaneous melanomas. It is a two-step procedure: first, the patient is injected with a tumor-localizing drug containing the non-radioactive isotope boron-10 (10B), which has a high propensity to capture thermal neutrons. The cross section of the 10B is many times greater than that of the other elements present in tissues such as hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. In the second step, the patient is radiated with epithermal neutrons, the source of which is either a nuclear reactor or, more recently, an accelerator. After losing energy as they penetrate tissue, the neutrons are captured by the 10B, which subsequently emits high-energy alpha particles that can selectively kill those tumor cells that have taken up sufficient quantities of 10B. All of the clinical experience to date with NCT is with the non-radioactive isotope boron-10, and this is known as boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). At this time, the use of other non-radioactive isotopes, such as gadolinium, has been limited to experimental studies, and to date, it has not been used clinically. BNCT has been evaluated clinically as an alternative to conventional radiation therapy for the treatment of high grade gliomas, meningiomas, and recurrent, locally advanced cancers of the head and neck region and superficial cutaneous and extracutaneous melanomas.
The MYRRHA is a "first of its kind" design project of a nuclear reactor coupled to a proton accelerator. MYRRHA will be a lead-bismuth cooled fast reactor with two possible configurations: sub-critical or critical.
