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Nuclear Power Reactors (1993)

Auteur	UKAEA
Datum	februari 1993
Classificatie	6.01.2.30/19 (TECHNISCH - KERNCENTRALES)
Voorkant

Nuclear Power Reactors

Introduction

The main difference between coal and oil-fired power stations and nuclear ones 
is the source of heat.
With coal and oil, the heat is produced by burning the fuel-a chemical reaction. 
In nuclear stations the heat comes from energy released when the nucleus of a 
heavy atom (uranium or plutonium) is split- a nuclear reaction. This produces 
several million times the energy of a chemical reaction weight for weight.
Although our present day 'thermal' reactors can use only a small percentage of 
their uranium fuel, this still yields tens of thousands of times as much energy 
as a chemical reaction.
So, the volumes of nuclear fuel to be mined, processed and transported, and of 
the resultant waste products are all much smaller than in the case of fossil fuels.
The first 30 years of nuclear power have seen considerable developments in reactor 
design. The early stations in Britain, the Magnox type were improved versions of 
Calder Hall. The Magnox design has been superseded by the Advanced Gas-cooled 
Reactor(AGR) which, with higher steam temperature and pressure, operates at much 
higher efficiency.
Parallel development of water-cooled reactors, mainly in the United States, 
produced the Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). A reactor of this type is being 
built at Sizewell, Suffolk. 
Much research and development has gone into the fast reactor, which can use uranium 
far more effectively. A commercial demonstration fast reactor, featuring a common 
European design, is expected to be built by the turn of the century.

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