Natural uranium reactor
A natural uranium reactor is a nuclear reactor that works with natural, i.e. non- enriched uranium as a nuclear fuel .
use
The first experimental test reactors from the 1940s and 1950s, but also some commercial power reactors , especially in Great Britain , France , Canada and India , used natural uranium. In Germany , research reactor 2 , the Niederaichbach nuclear power plant and the Karlsruhe multi-purpose research reactor were operated with natural uranium. Today (2020) natural uranium is still used for energy production in around 50 reactors of the CANDU type.
Physical background
In natural uranium, the proportion of the easily fissile uranium isotope 235 U is around 0.7%. In a reactor with natural uranium fuel, criticality , i.e. a self-sustaining nuclear fission chain reaction , cannot be achieved with every, but only with certain moderator substances; With the most economical moderator and coolant, ordinary water (light water), it does not work because too many neutrons are lost through absorption. All natural uranium reactors are therefore either heavy water reactors or graphite-moderated reactors. Either pure uranium metal (U) or uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) is used as fuel .
Most of today's nuclear power plants use enriched uranium with a 235 U content of 0.7% to 2%, with some reactor types up to 20%. Highly enriched uranium (20% to 93% 235 U) is used in a few research reactors and in nuclear weapons .
In the Oklo natural reactor and other uranium deposits in Gabon , critical nuclear fission chain reactions with natural uranium took place around two billion years ago. At that time, the proportion of 235 U in natural uranium was around 3%, so that the criticality could arise even with moderation with normal water.
Commercial power reactors
The following nuclear power plants were or are operated with natural uranium. In the case of nuclear power plants with several units, the first unit is indicated under “Start of operation” and that of the last unit under “End of operation”, and that of the most powerful unit under “Output”.
Magnox reactors
Magnox reactors ( engl. Magnesium Alloy Graphite Moderated Gas Cooled Reactor Uranium oxides ) are graphite-moderated nuclear reactors with carbon dioxide (CO 2 to be cooled). The fuel elements consist of natural uranium in metallic form, which is coated with a magnesium - aluminum alloy.
Magnox reactors were developed in the UK and were among the first commercial nuclear reactors in the world. The design was implemented in 26 UK reactors and two nuclear power plants in Italy and Japan . Today there is no longer a Magnox reactor in operation; the last remaining reactor was shut down at the Wylfa nuclear power plant on December 30, 2015.
As a successor to the Magnox reactor, the Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor was developed in Great Britain in the 1960s, but it uses uranium dioxide enriched to around 3% as a nuclear fuel.
Surname | country | power | operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Calder Hall 1-4 | Great Britain | 50 MW | Aug 1956 | Mar 2003 | First nuclear power plant used commercially to generate electricity, it was also used to generate plutonium |
Chapelcross 1-4 | Great Britain | 50 MW | Feb 1959 | Jun 2004 | was built and used parallel to Calder Hall |
Berkeley 1-2 | Great Britain | 138 MW | Jun 1962 | Mar 1989 | first nuclear power plant in the UK built for commercial use only |
Bradwell 1-2 | Great Britain | 123 MW | Jul 1962 | Mar 2002 | |
Latina | Italy | 153 MW | May 1963 | Dec 1987 | was shut down in the train of Italy's nuclear phase-out |
Hunterston A1-A2 | Great Britain | 150 MW | Feb 1964 | Mar 1990 | |
Trawsfynydd 1-2 | Great Britain | 159 MW | Jan 1965 | Feb 1991 | |
Hinkley Point A1-A2 | Great Britain | 235 MW | Feb 1965 | May 2000 | |
Dungeness A1-A2 | Great Britain | 225 MW | Sep 1965 | Dec 2006 | |
Tōkai | Japan | 159 MW | Nov 1965 | Mar 1998 | |
Size wave A1-A2 | Great Britain | 210 MW | Jan 1966 | Dec 2006 | |
Oldbury A1-A2 | Great Britain | 217 MW | Nov 1967 | Feb 2012 | |
Wylfa 1-2 | Great Britain | 490 MW | Jan 1971 | Dec 2015 |
UNGG reactors
The UNGG reactors ( French Uranium Naturel Graphite Gaz ), which were developed in France in the 1950s and 1960s , were similar in design to the Magnox reactors and were moderated with graphite and cooled with carbon dioxide. The fuel elements in UNGG reactors were also made of natural uranium, but here they were coated with a magnesium- zirconium alloy. UNGG reactors were used in eight French nuclear reactors and in the Spanish nuclear power plant Vandellòs , none of the reactors is now in operation.
The UNGG design has been replaced in France by pressurized water reactors , all of which are operated with enriched uranium.
Surname | country | power | operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marcoule G1-G3 | France | 40 MW | Sep 1956 | Jun 1984 | |
Quinone A1-A3 | France | 360 MW | Jun 1963 | Jun 1990 | |
Saint-Laurent A1-A2 | France | 515 MW | Mar 1969 | May 1992 | Incident (INES 4) |
Bugey 1 | France | 540 MW | Apr 1972 | May 1994 | |
Vandellòs 1 | Spain | 480 MW | May 1972 | Jul 1990 | was switched off permanently after a fire in October 1989 |
CANDU reactors
→ See also: List of CANDU reactors
The CANDU reactor was developed in Canada . CANDU reactors use heavy water as a moderator and also (in a separate circuit with overpressure) as a coolant. Natural uranium or slightly enriched uranium can be used as nuclear fuel.
The reactor type is used in many countries, especially Canada, but also in Argentina , China , Pakistan , Romania and South Korea . 34 of the 36 CANDU reactors are still in operation today.
The Advanced CANDU Reactor is an evolution of the CANDU design, which uses slightly enriched uranium.
Surname | country | power | operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rolphton | Canada | 22 MW | Jun 1962 | Aug 1987 | Prototype for CANDU reactors |
Douglas Point | Canada | 206 MW | Jan 1967 | May 1984 | Canada's first commercially operated nuclear power plant |
Pickering 1-8 | Canada | 516 MW | Apr 1971 | ||
Gentilly 1-2 | Canada | 635 MW | Apr 1971 | Unit 1 was a prototype for the heavy boiling water reactor | |
Rajasthan 1 | India | 90 MW | Nov 1972 | ||
Karachi | Pakistan | 125 MW | Dec 1972 | ||
Bruce 1-8 | Canada | 822 MW | Sep 1976 | ||
Wolsong 1-4 | South Korea | 685 MW | Dec 1982 | ||
Point Lepreau | Canada | 635 MW | Feb 1983 | ||
Embalse | Argentina | 600 MW | Apr 1983 | ||
Darlington 1-4 | Canada | 878 MW | Jan 1990 | ||
Cernavoda 1-2 | Romania | 650 MW | Jul 1996 | only nuclear power plant in Romania | |
Qinshan 3-1,3-2 | China | 650 MW | Nov 2002 |
Further heavy water pressure reactors
Most nuclear reactors in India are heavy water-pressure reactors ( Engl. Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor ), which are operated with natural uranium and based on the CANDU design. All 16 reactors are still in operation.
The Niederaichbach nuclear power plant in Germany , a heavy water moderated pressure tube reactor with CO 2 gas cooling, and the multi-purpose research reactor Karlsruhe , a pressure tube reactor moderated and cooled with heavy water, were also operated with natural uranium . Both plants have now been shut down. The multi-purpose research reactor served as a prototype for the Argentine nuclear power plant Atucha 1, which is still in operation today and now uses slightly (0.85%) enriched uranium for reasons of efficiency.
The R3 reactor at Ågesta nuclear power plant in Sweden was a pressure vessel reactor developed as part of the so-called "Swedish Line", which aimed to achieve independence from abroad through the use of indigenous, non-enriched uranium fuel elements; the later Swedish nuclear power plants, however, were light water reactors operated with enriched uranium. Reactor A1 in the Czechoslovakian nuclear power plant Bohunice was a gas-cooled prototype pressure tube reactor that was developed jointly with Russia and also operated with natural uranium. These two reactors have now also been shut down.
Surname | country | power | operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ågesta | Sweden | 10 MW | May 1964 | Jun 1974 | first Swedish nuclear power plant |
MZFR Karlsruhe | Germany | 52 MW | Sep 1965 | May 1984 | was also used as a research reactor |
Bohunice A1 | Czechoslovakia | 93 MW | Dec 1972 | May 1979 | first Czechoslovak nuclear power plant |
Niederaichbach | Germany | 100 MW | Jan 1973 | Jul 1974 | was only in operation for 18 months |
Atucha 1 | Argentina | 100 MW | Mar 1974 | today uses slightly (0.85%) enriched uranium | |
Rajasthan 2-6 | India | 202 MW | Nov 1980 | ||
Madras 1-2 | India | 202 MW | Jul 1983 | ||
Narora 1-2 | India | 202 MW | Jul 1989 | ||
Kakrapar 1-2 | India | 202 MW | Nov 1992 | ||
Kaiga 1-4 | India | 202 MW | Dec 1999 | ||
Tarapur 3-4 | India | 490 MW | Mar 2000 |
Experimental and research reactors
Examples of experimental and research reactors that were or are operated with natural uranium are:
Graphite-moderated reactors
Surname | country | power | operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago Pile 1 | United States | 0.5 W | Feb 1942 | Mar 1943 | first nuclear reactor in which a controlled critical nuclear chain reaction took place |
Chicago Pile 2 | United States | 2 w | Mar 1943 | 1954 | The Chicago Pile 1 was rebuilt in the Red Gate Woods (first Argonne National Laboratory ) as Chicago Pile 2. |
F-1 | Russia | 24 W. | Dec 1946 | was operated with natural uranium as well as with 2% enriched uranium | |
GLEEP | Great Britain | 50 W | Aug 1947 | Sep 1990 | first nuclear reactor in Western Europe |
BR-1 | Belgium | 4 MW | May 1956 | ||
Marius | France | 400 W | 1960 | Apr 1983 | |
BEPO | Great Britain | 6.5 MW | 1962 | 1968 | |
Cesar | France | 10 W | Dec 1964 | Aug 1977 |
Heavy water moderated reactors
Surname | country | power | operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chicago Pile 3 | United States | 300 W | May 1944 | 1954 | first heavy water reactor |
Haigerloch | Germany | - | (Mar 1945) | (Apr 1945) | did not achieve any criticality |
ZEEP | Canada | 10 W | Sep 1945 | Oct 1970 | first operational nuclear reactor outside of the United States |
NRX | Canada | 25 MW | Jul 1947 | Mar 1993 | For several years the most powerful nuclear reactor in the world |
ZOÉ | France | 0.1 MW | Dec 1948 | 1974 | |
EL-2 | France | 2 MW | 1952 | 1965 | |
R1 | Sweden | 0.6 MW | Jul 1954 | 1970 | |
Aquilon | France | 18 MW | 1956 | ? | |
NRU | Canada | 200 MW | Nov 1957 | was switched to highly enriched uranium in 1964 and to weakly enriched uranium in 1991 | |
RB | Serbia | 0 W | Apr 1958 | was later switched to highly enriched uranium | |
CIRUS | India | 40 MW | Jul 1960 | ||
ZED-2 | Canada | 200 W | Sep 1960 | ||
Diorite | Switzerland | 30 MW | Oct 1960 | 1977 | |
FR 2 | Germany | 12 MW | Mar 1961 | Dec 1981 | first nuclear reactor in Germany that was built according to its own concept; was switched to weakly enriched uranium in 1966 |
JRR-3 | Japan | 10 MW | 1962 | 1983 | |
ESSOR | European Union | 43 MW | Mar 1967 | Jun 1983 | The location was Ispra , Italy |
TRR | Taiwan | 40 MW | Jan 1973 | 1988 | |
Dhruva | India | 100 MW | Aug 1985 |
Military nuclear facilities
All of today's nuclear powers (USA, Russia, Great Britain, France and the People's Republic of China, as well as India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea) initially used natural uranium reactors to produce weapons- grade plutonium . The infrastructure for the production of nuclear weapons was created in some large-scale nuclear programs (see e.g. Manhattan Project , Force de frappe , Soviet atomic bomb project , China’s first research station for nuclear weapons and North Korean nuclear weapons program ). The first of these reactors from the 1940s and 1950s have now been shut down.
In the following military nuclear facilities , natural uranium reactors were used to produce plutonium.
Surname | country | Number of reactors |
Total output |
operating beginning |
operating end |
Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hanford Site | United States | 3 | 750 MW | Jun 1943 | Jun 1965 | The plutonium produced was used for the Fat Man atomic bomb , which was dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki on August 9, 1945 . |
Mayak | Russia | 7th | 63 MW | Jun 1948 | 1990 | On September 29, 1957, one of the three most serious nuclear accidents in history occurred there. |
Sellafield | Great Britain | 2 | 360 MW | Oct 1950 | Oct 1957 | The Pile No. 1 and Pile No. 2 reactors were shut down after the Windscale fire in October 1957. |
Tomsk | Russia | 5 | 45 MW | 1955 | Jun 2008 | One of the three reactors (ADE-5) was also used for electricity and district heating. |
Marcoule | France | 3 | 80 MW | Sep 1956 | Jun 1984 | The three reactors G1 to G3 (see above) also provided power. |
Zheleznogorsk | Russia | 3 | 27 MW | Aug 1958 | Apr 2010 | One of the three reactors (ADE-2) was also used for power and district heating. |
Bhabha | India | 2 | 140 MW | Jul 1960 | The two reactors CIRUS and Dhruva (see above) are officially declared as research reactors. | |
Dimona | Israel | 1 | 24 MW | 1964 | With French help, it was constructed identically to the G1 reactor. The Israeli government has so far neither confirmed nor denied that this is a military facility for the production of plutonium. | |
Jiuquan | China | 1 | 250 MW | Oct 1966 | The reactor was built with Soviet help. | |
Nyŏngbyŏn | North Korea | 1 | 25 MW | Aug 1985 | The Experimental Power Reactor was built without British support based on the approved construction plans of the Magnox reactors of the Calder Hall nuclear power plant , it was also used to generate electricity (about 5 MWe). | |
Khushab | Pakistan | 1 | 50 MW | Apr 1998 | The reactor was developed independently, Saudi Arabia co-financed the project (see Saudi Arabia's nuclear program ). |
See also
literature
- Kenneth Kok (Ed.): Nuclear Engineering Handbook . CRC Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4200-5390-6 (English).
Web links
- Power Reactor Information System on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency
- Research Reactor Database on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency
- Reactor Database on the World Nuclear Association website
supporting documents
- ^ Institution of Engineering and Technology: Nuclear Reactor Types. (No longer available online.) May 2008, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ World Nuclear Association: Nuclear Power Reactors. April 2009, accessed 26 December 2009 .
- ↑ Alex P. Meshik: Natural Nuclear Reactors . In: Spectrum of Science . tape 2006/06 , 2006, pp. 84-90 ( Spektrum.de ).
- ^ European Nuclear Society: Magnox reactor. Retrieved December 25, 2009 .
- ↑ Mary Byrd Davis: Natural uranium graphite gas reactors (UNGG) ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nuclear France: Materials and Sites, WISE-Paris, 2002.
- ^ CANDU Owners Group Inc .: CANDU Reactors. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 25, 2012 ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ A b c Rodney W. Jones, Mark G. McDonough: Tracking Nuclear Proliferation: A Guide in Maps and Charts, 1998 . Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1998, 6. India Map and Chart ( carnegieendowment.org [PDF]). carnegieendowment.org ( Memento of the original dated August 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Federal Office for Radiation Protection : Nuclear Plant Decommissioning September 2009. (PDF) (No longer available online.) September 2009, formerly the original ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Enrico Fermi : The Development of the First Chain Reaction Pile . In: Proceedings of the American Philosophy Society . No. 90 , 1946, pp. 20-24 .
- ^ Argonne National Laboratory : Chicago Pile 2. Retrieved December 28, 2009 .
- ^ Nuclear Threat Initiative: Russia: Kurchatov Institute. July 8, 2004, accessed December 28, 2009 .
- ^ Research Sites Restoration: Harwell Achievements. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; accessed on December 28, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ SCK • CEN : BR1 - 50th Anniversary. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 13, 2016 ; accessed on December 28, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Mary Byrd Davis: Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nuclear France: Materials and Sites, WISE-Paris, 2002.
- ↑ Curtains for BEPO ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nuclear Engineering International, February 20, 2009.
- ↑ Werner Heisenberg : About the work on the technical exploitation of nuclear energy in Germany . In: Natural Sciences . No. 33 , 1946, pp. 325-329 .
- ^ Canadian Nuclear Association: ZEEP. (No longer available online.) 2008, archived from the original on March 13, 2011 ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Canadian Nuclear Association: National Research Experimental. 2008, accessed December 25, 2009 .
- ^ Mary Byrd Davis: Center de Fontenay-aux-Roses ( Memento of February 25, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Nuclear France: Materials and Sites, WISE-Paris, 2002.
- ^ A b Mary Byrd Davis: Center de Saclay ( Memento of April 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), Nuclear France: Materials and Sites, WISE-Paris, 2002.
- ^ Vattenfall : The development of Swedish nuclear power plants. (PDF) September 15, 2009, accessed December 31, 2009 .
- ^ Canadian Nuclear Association: National Research Universal. (No longer available online.) 2008, archived from the original on October 18, 2009 ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Atomic Energy of Canada: AECL's NRU Reactor
- ↑ Peter Hug: Atomic Energy. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . April 20, 2011 , accessed July 2, 2019 .
- ^ Information circle on nuclear energy: History of nuclear research. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 28, 2009 ; Retrieved December 25, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Fusao Nakayama: Japanese Experience with Shipment of Research Reactor Spent Fuel , IAEA / USA Interregional Training Course, 13.-24. January 1997.
- ^ Chungshan , GlobalSecurity.org
- ^ Hanford site history
- ↑ Mary Byrd Davis: Languedoc-Roussillon ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Nuclear France: Materials and Sites, WISE-Paris, 2002.
- ^ Israel - Nuclear Weapons , GlobalSecurity.org
- ^ David Wright, Lisbeth Gronlund: A History of China's Plutonium Production . In: Science and Global Security . No. 11 , 2003 (English, ucsusa.org [PDF; 239 kB ]).
- ^ World Nuclear Association: Nuclear Power in Korea. December 16, 2009. Retrieved December 26, 2009 .
- ↑ Pakistan's Indigenous Nuclear Reactor Starts Up . Islamabad The Nation, April 13, 1998.