Understanding Nuclear Reactors

Brian Hooton became a Research Fellow in the Nuclear Physics Division at Harwell in 1961. In 1968 he had a sabbatical year at Chalk River, the Atomic Energy of Canada. Upon his return to Harwell, he became a Group Leader. In 1983 he was appointed as the Senior Advisor to the Secretary (SAS) at the London HQ of the UKAEA, where he had very broad responsibilities across the whole of the UKEAE's sites. Hooton retired from the UKAEA in 1991 and set up Nuclear Consultancy Services Ltd offering consultancy services to the nuclear industry.

1. Introduction and Prelude
1.1: Global Warming
1.2: Capacity Factors
1.3: Welcome to the Nuclear Age
1.4: The First Electricity Producing Reactors
1.5: The Prelude
2. Fundamental Nuclear Physics
2.1: The Pauli Exclusion Principle
2.2: Nuclear Forces
2.3: Nuclear Reactions
2.4: Energy and Mass Units
2.5: Photons
2.6: Antimatter, Pair Production, and Annihilation
2.7: Mass Defects, Q Values, and Cross-Sections
2.8: Cross-Sections
2.9: The Discovery of Radioactivity
2.10: The General Characteristics of Radioactivity
2.11: Gamma Decay
2.12: Spontaneous Fission
3. Basic Quantum Theory
3.1: Skip this Chapter if you Wish
3.2: The Uncertainty Principle
3.3: The Theoretical Treatment of Nuclear Physics
3.4: Atomic Spectra and Quantum Numbers
3.5: Sommerfeld's Contribution
3.6: Pauli's Contribution
3.7: Spin and Parity
3.8: Alpha Decay
3.9: Beta Decay and the Story of the Neutrino
3.10: The Discovery of the Neutron
3.11: Quantum Theory and Beyond
4. The Story of E = MC2 and Relativity
4.1: The Unification of Electricity and Magnetism
4.2: Relative Motion
4.3: Einstein's Theory
4.4: Standards of Mass, Length, and Time
5. The Fission Process and the Characteristics of Fission
5.1: The Discovery of Fission
5.2: Niels Bohr and Copenhagen
5.3: The Fission Process
5.4: Neutron Interactions
5.5: The Fate of Gamma Rays
5.6: Fission Fragments
5.7: Delayed Neutrons
5.8: The Energy of Fission
5.9: Decay Heat
5.10: The Chain Reaction
6. Nuclear Reactors in General
6.1: Nuclear Reactor Calculations
6.2: The Growth of the Neutron Population
6.3: The Six Factor Formula
6.4: The Effect of Delayed Neutrons on Reactor Control
6.5: Reactivity
6.6: Monte Carlo Models
6.7: Nuclear Reactor Operations
6.8: Fuel
6.9: Moderators
6.10: Coolants
6.11: Poisons
6.12: Control Poisons
6.13: Unavoidable Poisons
6.14: Burnable Poisons
6.15: Engineering Materials
6.16: The Fast Reactor
6.17: Hybrid Reactors
7. Reactor Operations and Control
7.1: Controlling Reactors to Keep them Safe
7.2: The First Reactors
7.3: Reactor CP1
7.4: Controlling Commercial Reactors
7.5: The Reactor Pressure Vessel
7.6: The Reactor Coolant Pump
7.7: The Pressuriser
7.8: The Steam Generator
7.9: The Boron Loading Loop
7.10: Power Measurement
7.11: The Fuel Temperature Coefficient (FTC)
7.12: The Moderator Temperature Coefficient (MTC)
7.13: The Void Coefficient
7.14: Changes In Steam Demand
7.15: Control Room Operations
8. Safety
8.1: Safety, Risk, and Consequences
8.2: The Regulators
8.3: Decay Heat Removal
8.4: Loss of Coolant
8.5: Passive Safety Measures
8.6: The Windscale Fire
8.7: Brown's Ferry
8.8: Three Mile Island
8.9: Chernobyl 1986
8.10: Problems in the Fukushima Region of Japan
8.11: Safety Overview
8.12: Understanding the Health Hazard of Radiation
9. The Nuclear Fuel Cycle
9.1: The Nuclear Fuel Cycle Definition
9.2: Mining
9.3: Enrichment
9.4: Fuel Fabrication
9.5: Spent Fuel Management
9.6: Spent Fuel Ponds
9.7: Cherenkov Radiation
9.8: Reprocessing
9.9: Nuclear Waste
10. International Treaties and Obligations
10.1: Euratom
10.2: Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, NPT
10.3: The International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA
10.4: Nuclear Safeguards
10.5: Obligations
11. The Future of Fission Reactors and Fusion
11.1: The Alternatives to Fossil Fuel
11.2: Generation IV Technology
11.3: The Move to Higher Temperatures
11.4: The Move to Fast Reactors
11.5: The Move to SMRs and AMRs
11.6: Plutonium Breeding
11.7: Thorium Breeding
11.8: New Coolants
11.9: Molten Salts
11.10: New Types of Fuel
11.11: Burning Waste and Using the Minor Actinides as Fuel
11.12: New Reprocessing Technology
11.13: The Economics and Politics of Electricity Generation
11.14: The Utilisation of E = MC2
12. Nuclear Fusion
12.1: The Fusion Process
12.2: Producing Fusion in the Laboratory
12.3: ITER
12.4: MAST and STEP
12.5: The Fuel for Fusion
12.6: The Tritium Breeding Ratio, TBR
12.7: Venture Capital
12.8: The Conclusion on Fusion
13. The Hydrogen Strategy
13.1: The Basic Properties of Hydrogen
13.2: The Production of Hydrogen
13.3: Carbon Capture
13.4: Energy Storage
13.5: New Markets for Hydrogen
13.6: Hydrogen in the Colours of the Rainbow
13.7: The Race to Deliver Net Zero
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