The Wonderful World Of Nuclear Reactors

1
The Wonderful World Of Nuclear Reactors

• By Josh Daniels

2
History In the Beginning . . .

• In the beginning, there was no nuclear power.
• People were dependent on fossil fuels , like coal
  and petroleum.
• Steam was the main source of power.

3
The Quest for Power . . .

• After German scientists Otto Hahn and Lise
  Meitner discovered nuclear fission in 1938, many
  were already speculating the use of nuclear
  fission as a power source.

Gutentag! My name is Otto!
4
The Quest Continues . . .

• The real impetus came when the second world war
  broke out in 1939.
• Physicists immediately turned their attentions to
  the use of nuclear fission as a weapon the
  atomic bomb.
• Since German scientists had discovered nuclear
  fission, it was feared that the Nazis would soon
  discover the secret of the atomic bomb.

5
The Manhattan Project

• By far, the most successful program for the
  development of nuclear weapons was the American
  Manhattan project, proposed by Albert Einstein,
  and including some of the greatest minds in
  theoretical physics, such as J. Robert
  Oppenheimer and Enrico Fermi.
• The purpose of the project was to learn more
  about the nuclear fission reaction, so that an
  atomic bomb could be made as a weapon of war.

6
The Atomic Bomb

• In 1942, Fermi produced the first self-sustaining
  nuclear fission reaction.
• To achieve this task, he constructed the first
  nuclear reactor, the CP-1.
• In 1945, the United States demonstrated the
  success of the Manhattan project by detonating
  two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thus
  ending WWII.
• President Eisenhower soon announced his Atoms for
  peace program, establishing the groundwork for a
  formal nuclear power program.

7
Parts of a Reactor

• A moderator slows down the free neutrons to
  increase the number of fissions.
• A Cooling system keeps the reactors core
  components from melting down.
• control rods control the speed at which the
  reaction progresses.
• A reflector shield reflects free neutrons back
  towards the core.
• A thermal shield absorbs the heat generated by
  the chain reaction.
• And a biological shield protects the human
  operators from harmful gamma radiation.

8
Types of Reactors

• There are three basic types of reactors.
• Power reactors are used to produce steam in order
  to power a turbine.
• Research or experimental reactors are used mainly
  to produce fuel and conduct nuclear experiments.
• Breeder reactors are used to produce both power
  and fuel at the same time.

9
Implications and predictions

• Nuclear energy has many serious concerns that go
  along with the benefits
• The fission fragments that are produced as a
  result of fission are highly radioactive
  thousands of years after they were created. We
  must store them in order to protect our
  environment from radiation hazards.
• There is no doubt that radiation hazards are
  serious concerns in 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear
  power plant in what is now the Ukraine exploded,
  devastating much of Europe and parts of Asia with
  nuclear waste and radiation.
• Another problem is how to prevent the increased
  use of nuclear weapons, and avoid nuclear war.
• Many predict that man will turn toward an
  alternative, more efficient power source in the
  future, but that remains uncertain.

10
Thank you for your time!