EES 0836 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Criticality Accident, Roentgen Equivalent Man
3 Apr 2016
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Lecture 8: breeder reactors, the finite resource problem goes away under a breeder reactor program, neutrons can attach to the non-fissile 238u to become 239u. Beta-decays into 239np with half-life of 24 minutes. 239np beta-decays into 239pu with half-life of 2. 4 days. About 1/3 of energy in normal reactors ends up coming from 239pu: reactors can be designed to breed 239pu in a better-than-break-even way, breeders, continued, could use breeders to convert all available 238u into 239pu. But four are running in the world: enough 239pu falling into the wrong hands spells: Pu is pre-enriched to 100%; need less for bomb: reactor risk, once a vigorous program in the u. s. Still so in france: 80% of their electricity is nuclear: orders for reactors in u. s. stopped in late 70"s. Not coincidentally on the heels of three-mile island. Only recently did it pick back up: 5 under construction: failure modes: Criticality accident: runaway chain reaction meltdown.
