Introduction to Nuclear Engineering

This lecture covers the fundamental concepts of nuclear engineering, including reactor technology, nuclear physics, fuel cycle, reactor physics, reactor kinetics, thermal hydraulics, radiation protection, nuclear safety principles, design basis accidents, and advanced reactor systems. It also discusses the structure of light water reactors, fission reactions, fission product composition, delayed neutrons, reactivity variations, and safety measures in nuclear power plants. The instructor presents the physical barriers, decay heat, and the overall safety concept in nuclear reactors, emphasizing the defense-in-depth approach and the containment system.

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ME-464: Introduction to nuclear engineering

This course is intended to understand the engineering design of nuclear power plants using the basic principles of reactor physics, fluid flow and heat transfer. This course includes the following: Re

A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. 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 (water or gas), 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.

Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release of heat energy (kinetic energy of the nuclei), and gamma rays. The two smaller nuclei are the fission products. (See also Fission products (by element)). About 0.2% to 0.4% of fissions are ternary fissions, producing a third light nucleus such as helium-4 (90%) or tritium (7%).

Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radioactive decay. Nuclear fission was discovered on 19 December 1938 in Berlin by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann. Physicists Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Robert Frisch explained it theoretically in January 1939. Frisch named the process "fission" by analogy with biological fission of living cells.

Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing and sustaining nuclear fission. The three most relevant fissile isotopes are uranium-233, uranium-235 and plutonium-239. When the unstable nuclei of these atoms are hit by a slow-moving neutron, they frequently split, creating two daughter nuclei and two or three more neutrons.

A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. These reactors can be fuelled with more commonly available isotopes of uranium and thorium, such as uranium-238 or thorium-232, as opposed to the rare uranium-235 which is used in conventional reactors. These materials are called fertile materials since they can be bred into fuel by these breeder reactors. Breeder reactors achieve this because their neutron economy is high enough to create more fissile fuel than they use.

Introduction to Nuclear Engineering ME-464: Introduction to nuclear engineering

Introduces nuclear engineering, covering reactions, chain reactions, fuel cycle, criticality, and multiplication factors.

Introduction to Nuclear Engineering: Gen IV Reactors ME-464: Introduction to nuclear engineering

Introduces Generation IV nuclear reactors, focusing on fast-spectrum reactors and their sustainability, breeding of fissile fuel, properties of coolants, historical development, advantages, disadvantages, and key challenges.

Reactor Technology: Reactivity Variations and Control PHYS-443: Physics of nuclear reactors

Explores reactivity variations in reactor technology, covering short-term, medium-term, and long-term effects, means of control, and consequences.

Introduction to Nuclear Engineering: Chain Reactions and Fuel Cycles ME-464: Introduction to nuclear engineering

Explores chain reactions, criticality, reactor types, and fuel cycles in nuclear engineering.

Physics of Nuclear Reactors: Fundamentals and Advanced Concepts PHYS-443: Physics of nuclear reactors

Explores the fundamentals and challenges of nuclear reactors, covering neutron diffusion, fission, breeding, transmutation, and advanced technologies.