Sentences with phrase «of sodium coolant»

The use of sodium coolant rather than a water coolant enables higher burn - up.

Not exact matches

Liquid sodium is an ideal coolant in that, unlike water, it does not impede the movement of fast neutrons.

In December 2005, over 700 kilograms of molten sodium coolant burst through a pipe, releasing toxic fumes and damaging the plant.

Then there is the question mark over the use of highly reactive sodium as the coolant.

The restart of Monju entails the inherent dangers of a run away chain reaction and a serious accident caused by leakage of the molten sodium coolant.

This ensures efficient transfer of heat from the metal fuel to the liquid sodium coolant.

Instead of water, liquid sodium is typically used as a coolant because the sodium atoms are so much larger and heavier than neutrons that when they collide the neutrons simply ricochet off the sodium atom - much a like a small bullet ricocheting off a thick plate metal.

Since the PRISM reactor is designed to operate between 640 F — 905 F, the properties of sodium make it an excellent coolant.

An additional feature of metal fuel use in sodium is that the fuel does not chemically react with the coolant compared to oxide fuel pellets which dissolve in high temperature sodium.

Unlike the current generation of light - water nuclear reactors, PRISM uses metallic fuel, such as an alloy of zirconium, uranium, and plutonium, and PRISM's fuel rods sit in a bath of a liquid metal — sodium — at atmospheric pressure, which ensures that the transfer of heat from the metal fuel to the liquid sodium coolant is extremely efficient.

PRISM's coolant, liquid sodium, allows the neutrons in the reactor to remain at a higher energy (or speed, hence the common reference of «fast reactor»).

Thus, liquid sodium is the coolant of choice in fast reactors because it can effectively transfer heat away from the nuclear fuel, while at the same time maximizing the number of fast neutrons.

«What it does is it takes different sorts of fuel materials such as plutonium or used nuclear fuel, it casts that into a metallic fuel, it puts it in a reactor that has liquid sodium as a coolant — and if you have liquid sodium as a coolant then the energies of the neutrons are higher so you can use a different fuel source.