Questions tagged [nuclear-technology]
35 questions
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How much can Protactinium degrade the efficiency of the Thorium fuel cycle?
One of the counterpoints to the Thorium fuel cycle is that Protactinium, which is generated in this cycle degrades reactor efficiency and thus needs to be removed, at least from the liquid fluoride or molten salt reactors. However, as far as I can…
got trolled too much this week
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Why does it take so long to restart a nuclear power plant?
I have heard a couple of times that an operating nuclear power plant which was shut down (non-emergency; e.g. for a regular check) needs over 24 hours (up to 72 hours?) to get up running again.
Why does it take that long?
Martin Thoma
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How does nuclear fuel reprocessing work?
As far I know, the depleted fuel cells are crushed, and solved in nitric acid.
What is coming after that? This nitric acid should probably contain a very wide spectrum of different salts (practically, all of the elements between 35-65, and yet a lot…
peterh
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How does thermonuclear warhead yield scale with size?
The Tsar Bomba packed a yield of 50 megatons into a package 2.1m in diameter by 8m long. Assuming that the lead tamper modification was not used (which boosts the yield of the Tsar Bomba design to 100 megatons), how much would the yield scale as a…
ThreePhaseEel
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Why have thorium fueled nuclear reactors not been more fully developed?
Why have thorium nuclear reactors not been ore fully developed? Earth has more thorium than uranium. Is it technical difficulties or the fact that uranium technology was developed first for military reasons? Are there other reasons?
Brinn Belyea
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Multi-gas barometric height formula in isotope separation devices?
What is the barometric height formula for a mixture of gases?
The main problem I can see, the curves describing the minimal energy (kinetic + gravitational/centrifugal) won't be any more a simple derivative, but a functional equation.
I think, this…
peterh
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How to separate isotopes of Plutonium?
In case of Uranium, things are lot easier, because $UF_6$ is gaseous from around 60 $\,^{\circ}\mathrm{C}$.
I know, that in most cases, plutonium isotope separation is not needed, because there is no need to separate its fissile isotopes. But there…
peterh
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Smallest possible controlled chain reaction-based nuclear fission reactor?
I think, it could be a reactor utilizing californium-242 (or, at least, weapon-grade U-235) cooled and moderated by heavy water.
Essentially, it were similar to an atomic bomb, but - of course - it would be optimized for stay around the equilibrial…
peterh
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Nuclear wastegate thermal dissipation systems?
How do shoreline nuclear facilities lower the temperature of wastewater generated by their cooling systems before it enters the ocean?
BUzzBuzz
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What's the smallest possible nuclear power generator?
Nuclear microreactors like Westinghouse's eVinci are small enough to fit on a flatbed semi-truck, and NuScale Power's small modular reactor (SMR) is relatively small, too; but are there smaller nuclear power generators? What limits the size of a…
Geremia
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What is the *typical* quantity (in kg) of uranium-235 present at a given moment in a nuclear plant?
What is the typical quantity (in kg) of uranium-235 present at a given moment in a working nuclear plant?
How does this compare to the typical amount of uranium-235 in a typical nuclear bomb (typically one kg of uranium-235)
Mathieu Krisztian
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Why are Chinese aircraft carriers conventionally powered?
China has nuclear-powered submarines, which means China is able to manufacture portable nuclear power-plants.
Then, why is the latest Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong conventionally powered?
user366312
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What are the key technical challenges to development of traveling wave reactors?
I recently learned about traveling wave reactors (TWRs) on the Netflix Bill Gates special, as an example of a cutting-edge technology Gates is funding which has the potential solve several environmental problems.
The TWR is a nuclear fission reactor…
LShaver
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Which Gen IV reactor types use nuclear waste as fuel?
I have read the Wikipedia article on Generation IV nuclear reactors, but from that article it is not clear to me which of the main reactor types that use nuclear waste to fuel the process. As far as I have been able to understand, Molten Salt…
Anders Gustafsson
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Is there any aspect of an Explosion resulting from a nuclear weapon test that cannot be simulated using super computers?
This Washington Post news article states that with the advent of computer simulation of nuclear tests, live tests are no longer needed.
Generally speaking there are 3 aspects of an Explosion resulting from a nuclear weapon test that are tested:
(a)…
DSarkar
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