Lecture 15

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Lecture 15: The Nuclear Power

Plants
The Nuclear Energy
The source of nuclear energy is the rearrangement of protons and neutrons to
form more stable nuclei. In this manner, nuclear reactions are akin to
chemical reactions; the latter occur in nature often spontaneously and
except for the relatively few spontaneous endothermic reactions, the
products have less internal energy than the reactants and can therefore exist
in a more stable milieu.
Fusion is the combination of light nuclei such as the hydrogen nucleus, a
single proton, to produce something heavier such as the helium nucleus, two
protons and two neutrons. Fission is the process of breaking apart large nuclei
such as uranium into some smaller pieces such as krypton and iodine. Both
nuclear reactions function under the principle that more stable nuclei result,
both releases very large amounts of energy in the process, and both types
have been achieved in some form although not always in a controlled
fashion on earth.
Here discussion would be at both the principles behind nuclear energy and
the energy resources available to be used for this purpose. In addition, the
wastes produced by both processes cannot be ignored, but in the case of
fusion, these wastes are insignificant and mostly nonradioactive. Even heat
produced by normal decay of nuclei after a reactor is closed down is
astonishingly small for a fusion reactor but a critical issue for a fission reactor.
The disaster at one of the Chernobyl RMBK reactor in 1986 launched public
and political concern about all nuclear fission reactors. In the United States, a
backlash against nuclear energy halted programs as plans for new plants
were scrapped nationwide. The recent accident in Fukushima Daiichi, Japan
further intensified concern related to Nuclear Power Plant safety.

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Figure 15.1: (a) Typical Nuclear Power Plant, (b) Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) Power Plant (Source IAEA)

Figure 15.2: (a) Total Number of Nuclear Reactors in World, (b) Countries Nuclear Share in Electricity (Source IAEA)

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Lecture 15

Figure 15.3: Pakistan Total Electricity Production and its Nuclear Share in Electricity (Source IAEA)

Chemistry Analogy
Chemical Process
C + O2

CO2

Chemical reactions involve the combination or separation of whole atoms. For

example this reaction is accompanied by the release of about 4 electron volts
(eV). An electron volt is a unit of energy in common use in nuclear
engineering. 1 eV = 1.6021x10-19 joules (J) = 1.519 x 10-22 Btu = 4.44 x 10-26
kWh. 1 million electron volts (1 MeV) = 106 eV.
To produce the thermal energy required to produce 1000 megawatts of power
for a year: Fission one ton of uranium, or Burn 3,000,000 tons of coal.
Nuclear Reactions
The neutron (symbol = n) plays a central role in nuclear physics and
engineering. The neutron is now described as containing three sub-nuclear
particles called quarks. One of these carries a positive electrical charge (the

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Lecture 15

"up" quark) which is two-thirds (2/3) as large as that on a proton, and the
other two each carry a negative electrical charge (the "down" quarks) each
equal to -1/3 times the charge on the electron. The neutron is so-called
because it is electrically neutral, with a total electric charge of: 2/3 -1/3 -1/3 =
0.
Particle
neutron
proton

Symbol
n
p

Quark Composition
up, down, down
up, up, down

Electrical Charge
- 1/3 - 1/3 + 2/3 = 0
- 1/3 + 2/3 + 2/3 = 1

There is a close relationship between the neutron and the nucleus of the
ordinary hydrogen atom, the proton (symbol = p). The neutron has a mass
slightly larger than that of the proton, and subject to the famous formula E =
mc2, it converts to a proton when one of the "down" quarks emits an electron
to carry away one negative charge and become an "up" quark. (In the
process an extremely low mass and difficult to detect particle, a type of
"neutrino," is emitted to balance the spin of the particles in the reaction.) The
net result is the following radioactive decay of the neutron:

Quarks have the interesting property of pulling on each other harder and
harder as they are moved farther apart. As a result, one of the quarks in a
proton can only be separated from the others when it is replaced by another
quark. For example, if a proton and neutron are put next to each other, they
can exchange either an "up" or "down" quark. This process helps bind the
neutron and proton together in a stable nucleus appropriately called
deuterium (symbol = d).
Deuterium nuclei are about twice as heavy as protons, so when they replace
protons in ordinary water the result is called "heavy water." A deuterium
nucleus can also react with a neutron to form tritium (symbol = t), However,
deuterium does not absorb neutrons nearly as well as protons do. This is why
deuterium is used in place of protons in so-called heavy water for certain
types of nuclear reactors where neutron absorption needs to be minimized.
The neutron in tritium is also much less stable against the type of radioactive
decay mentioned above than it is in the stable deuterium nucleus; tritium has
a "half life" of only 12.3 years.
Tritium is one of the reactants in the fusion reaction that requires the lowest
energy in the reactants to overcome the electrostatic repulsion between the
nuclei. An important feature of this reaction is the high energy of the neutron
released:
To make this occur within a terrestrially useful time requires a temperature in
excess of c. 57 million degrees Celsius, where each hydrogen nucleus and
accompanying electron typically has as much energy as if it had moved
through a voltage of 5000 volts. (In this case we say the temperature is 5
keV, where keV stands for "kilo-electron-volts.") This reaction yields more

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energy per unit mass than any other nuclear reaction because the pair of
protons and the pair of neutrons in the resulting helium-4 nucleus are packed
together in a way that maximizes the change in binding energy per quark.
The neutrons released in such reactions each have the huge energy of 14,000
keV (i.e. 14 MeV). This leads to much more material damage per unit energy
release in practicable fusion compared to fission, where neutrons typically
have energies between one and two MeV. However, the high energy of such
fusion neutrons makes them very useful for increasing the yield of nuclear
weapons.
There are only a few methods for producing temperatures exceeding 5 keV
(57 million degrees). Three basic laboratory methods (and their
disadvantages for nuclear weapons) are:
1. Magnetic bottles (huge and expensive. $10 billion)
2. Laser compression of frozen deuterium-tritium mixtures (huge and still
multi-billion $)
3. Compression using exploding wires (may not work, and needs large
power supplies)
While there has been speculation that some such scheme might allow making
at least a nuclear land mine, there is no plausible reason to expect that this
would be competitive with the simple expedient of using a fission bomb to
produce the needed temperatures. Thus, controlled fusion experiments are
only indirectly relevant to the production of nuclear weapons. Their main role
in weapons programs is to allow continued exploration of the physics of high
temperature plasmas in the absence of nuclear testing, and to maintain a
cadre of scientists and engineers trained in some of the technologies relevant
to nuclear weapons design.
Of these laboratory methods, only a certain kind of magnetic bottle called the
tokamak (a Russian acronym for toroidal magnetic chamber) fairly clearly has
a potential for net energy production, albeit at a very high cost per unit
energy produced. The other two approaches are funded primarily through
weapons and/or exploratory research programs.
Average Binding Energy per Nucleon
The curve reaches a maximum near A=60 and
drops significantly by A=235. The drop between
A=120 and A=235 provides a measure of energy
release in fission. The energy release in fusion is
related to the steeply rising left proton of this
curve. As can be seen, the iron group is the most
tightly bound with 8.8 MeV per nucleon binding
energy. The lighter elements are more amenable
for nuclear fusion, while elements heavier than
iron can yield energy by fission.
Figure 15.3: Average Binding Energy per Nucleon