- Of the composition of spent fuel 95% is Uranium and only 1% is plutonium
- There are 350 nuclides identified as fission products, which are all Beta
and gamma emitters.
- Half life of fission materials vary from seconds to 100’s of years
- After usage the nuclear reactors produce waste known as spent fuel which if processed using the rights methods could be recycled and use again.
- Some of the methods of Irradiation Phenomena :
• Full Swelling
• Densification
• Formation of Hydrides
• Pellet and Cladding Iteration (PCI)
- The fuel pellets are pressurized with Helium so that if there is a breach in the form of a crack on the cladding body, the coolant can get into the fuel pellet storage and wash away radioactive material into the open loop, this are some of the safety precautions taken.
- Waste storage at a nuclear power plant can either be in the form of a wet pond or a dry pond.
- Also known as cooling ponds there are filled with water which also contain boron and cadmium, known as neutron poison.
- Reactor fuel is made from uranium and recycled plutonium
- This reactor fuel is a mixture of UO2 and PuO2, which is a mixed oxide fuel known as MOX
- Depleted or natural Uranium is use to dilute Plutonium so that it can be used again showing that there is a least of waste product produces.
- Reprocessing Uranium saves up to 84 tonnes.
- There has never been any significant accident in transporting fuel throughout the 40 years of nuclear power history.
- A Generic Flask- LWR Fuel is used to transport fuel, and its built to withstand the highest safety standards with exceptional durability, you can Google generic flask to find out furthermore.
- Type of packages chosen depends on the transported material (solid or liquid)
- These are some of the packages used to transport material
• Excepted packages (no significant hazard)
• Industrial packages
• Type A (design to withstand major accidents)
• Type B ( design to withstand severe accidents/ attack)
• Type C (as above)
Good brief explanation on a lot of things... *Like*
ReplyDeleteBut reprocessing Uranium saves up to 84 tonnes/(what?)
Transporting is less of a danger compared to mining/extracting(i think) unless someone wants to steal the thing when it's on the move. Btw, neutron poison means it 'kills' the neutrons??
Ang Jit Yong (ME083530)
aplox3@hotmail.com
The most formidable problem facing the nuclear power industry is the creation of huge quantities of long-lived radioactive waste. The difficulty of waste disposal was not considered to be a big problem during the time when power plants were first introduced; it was assumed that waste could be recycled or buried. Unfortunately, finding safe ways of storing radioactive wastes so that they do not leak radiation into the environment has proved to be a much more difficult task than anticipated.
ReplyDeleteIn 1987, the Yucca Mountain in Las Vegas, Nevada has been chosen as the first permanent high-level commercial nuclear waste storage repository in the US. Expected to cost up to $15 billion, this repository is scheduled to go into operation by the year 2010.
I wonder how will the Malaysian government response to this issue.
-Wong Chee Meng-
-ME082755-
-tidus_henry21@yahoo.com-
hi..i jus wonder,what is the funtion of the neutron poison actually? is it used to minimize the radioactive effect?
ReplyDeletetq
arif afifi bin ahmad
me084865
megatron_183@yahoo.com
what i would like to know is.... according to the article above, the was storage of a npp can b either a wet pond or dry pond??? wht does it mean by wet pond or dry pond???
ReplyDeleteAre the waste products in two diff forms?
R.Tevan Nair (ME083630)
dr.spiceinlife@yahoo.com
what i would like to know is.... according to the article above, the was storage of a npp can b either a wet pond or dry pond??? wht does it mean by wet pond or dry pond???
ReplyDeleteAre the waste products in two diff forms?
R.Tevan Nair (ME083630)
dr.spiceinlife@yahoo.com
hye..i want to know more about the design..what is the difference between those 3 design..and i want to know how those 3 design look alike..and what is the advantages and disadvantages of those design..TQ
ReplyDeleteMOHAMAD ASHIFF BIN KAMALUDIN (ME083578)
ars_shiffy@yahoo.com
From the top of article, you said that 95% is Uranium and only 1% is plutonium... Why is the plutonium is small? Is it hazardous?
ReplyDeleteWAN MOHAMED AFIF BIN WAN MANSOR
afif_blackcat@yahoo.com
hello,
ReplyDeleteHmm,i have understand that how the nuclear waste is been processed,to form a useful energy,but my doubt here,will be is it,the amount of radiation that will produced by uranium after the recycled process will be decrease or is it any difference,that can identify,and one more question will be,how the clasify the industrial waste in to three different types.
KESAVAN S/O MOHANADAS
CE083434
kesavan712554@gmail.com
from the information above i have few question to ask .
ReplyDeletewaste storage at a nuclear power plant can either be in the form of a wet pond or a dry pond ,which state is safer to store ?and what are the advantages of keeping in that form?
also happy to hear that in 40 years of nuclear power history there have been no accident for transporting the fuel.
Kumaran a/l somasundram
me083565
kmrn_siva@yahoo.com
hi,
ReplyDeletevery nice article, after reading this i think] we do can safely store the nuclear waste, as we have good knowledge about how to store the nuclear waste safely and precaution that should be taken.
jivithan a/l kandeeban
jiviremo@yahoo.com
me083555
arif,
ReplyDeleteu r correct. neutron poison means absorbing neutrons in reactor core to lower down the reactivity of initial fresh fuel load.
devan,
ReplyDeleteu r correct. there are 2 different type of wastages keept. wet pond is keept in liquid filled pond where the uranium wastages will burried in the liquid pond. while dry pond is solidfyed to solid tank as compressed uranium wastages into solid tanks. this known as dry pond.
wan mohamad,
ReplyDeleteOn rare occasions, U-238 undergoes spontaneous fission, and in the process, the nucleus emits one or two free neutrons with some kinetic energy. When one of these neutrons strikes the nucleus of another U-238 atom, it is absorbed and the atom, which becomes U-239. With quite-short half-lives, U-239 decays to neptunium-239 (Np-239), and then Np-239 decays into Pu-239.
Since the relatively long-lived isotope plutonium-240 occurs in the decay chain of plutonium-244 it should also be present, albeit 10,000 times rarer still.
so chances to fission nuclear fuel into plutonium is very-very minimal. thats why the ratio of plutonium are very small...
Hi..
ReplyDeleteAbout the package that is used to transport the material, is it the packages that we will use if we are having nuclear power plant in Malaysia? Is it suitable with our country weather and environment?
Syarifah Nur Hamizah Bt Syed Kasim
ME083650
ija_rc@yahoo.com
i would like to support tevan's question because i am curious to know about the wet ponds and dry ponds as well.According to the article above,does it mean that neutron poison is filled into the wet pond?What about the dry pond?What wastes enter there n how is it eliminated?
ReplyDeleteDINESH
ME083537