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Reactor Types and Safety
Nuclear reactors used for electric energy production are usually huge constructions. Research reactors are still big machines, but much smaller than...
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How to Operate a Nuclear Reactor
The energy present in atomic nuclei can be harnessed either in an uncontrolled way in atomic bombs or in a controlled way in nuclear reactors. In...
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Cusp Systems
A magnetic cusp forms when two like poles face one another. Since the 1950s, people have explored if there were ways to hold plasma inside such a...
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How to Drive a Nuclear Reactor
Have you ever wondered how a nuclear power station works? This lively book will answer that question. It’ll take you on a journey from the science...
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Gas-Cooled Fast Reactors
There are other options for cooling a fast reactor. Just as you can cool a thermal reactor with gas, it would also be conceivable to cool a fast...
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Tokamaks and Spherical Tokamaks
Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of the quest for fusion power will know that for many years, the leading candidate has been a magnetic...
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Lead-Cooled Fast Reactors
The two most serious problems of the sodium-cooled fast reactor can be solved simply by using a different coolant. Liquid lead is a good choice here....
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Plasma Jets
This chapter lays out the history of plasma-jet-driven magneto-inertial fusion (PJMIF), a unique concept in fusion that merits its own categorization...
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The Nuclear Fuel Cycle
The generation four reactor designs we have discussed so far have a thermal neutron spectrum. They are hotter at the core exit than third-generation...
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Molten Salt Reactors
The sixth reactor type in the Generation IV programme is something completely different. The fuel uranium or plutonium is not present here as a solid...
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Inertial Electrostatic Confinement
Inertial electrostatic confinement (IECInertial electrostatic confinement (IEC)) uses electric fields to heat plasmaPlasmas to fusion...
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The Thing You Put Your Reactor in…
It’s time for some engineering… for a Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR) that ‘thing you put your reactor in’ is called the ‘Primary Circuit’. It’s...
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Your Reactor Is Stable (Part One)
This chapter is about ‘Reactor Stability’. This is the second of the three key concepts that I mentioned at the beginning of the book.
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Your Reactor Is Stable (Part Two)
In this chapter, I’m going to explain the third key concept—how the design of the steam generators re-enforces the stability of the plant, and how it...
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Fusion Technology
This chapter is an overview of the current state of the art of fusion technology. Because of the imperative of dealing with climate change, most...
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Magnetic Mirrors
Following the pinchPinches in the historical development of fusion devices were magnetic mirrorsMagnetic mirrors, which confined plasmasPlasmas by...
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Inertial Confinement Fusion
So far, we have focused on fusion in plasmas that are confined by magnetic fields. Those approaches aim to maximize the time interval in which fusion...
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Plasmoids
Electromagnetic effects in plasmas can create various structures, such as smoke rings, sheets, and strands, often referred to generically as...
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The Path Forward
Climate changeClimate change is one the greatest threats to civilization that humans have ever faced. Figure 11.1 shows an example of the kinds of...
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Radioactive Incidents and Disasters
In the afternoon of September 29, 1957, a giant explosion roared through a secret city in the Urals, throwing radioactive material high up in the...