Sentences with phrase «normal reactor operation»

Although liquid sodium becomes extremely radioactive due to neutron activation during normal reactor operation, most (all but two) radioactive sodium isotopes have a half - life of less than a minute, and therefore pose minimal long - term risks.

Not exact matches

These include adequate uranium supply (probably necessitating immense uranium strip mines in Tennessee), almost inconceivable reactor and waste - transport accidents, low - level radiation effects from normal plant operations, and the burden of guarding both radioactive waste and outdated but radioactive nuclear plants for thousands of years.

Though control rods have stopped the uranium fission process that drives normal operation of a nuclear reactor, the byproducts of that continue to split and generate heat.

Next year, when two nuclear reactors near Syracuse, N.Y., are shut down for normal refueling operations, technicians will enter their cavernous containment structures looking for signs of aging in the thick steel walls surrounding shrouds of concrete.