Fundamentals of Light Water Nuclear Reactor Physics and Operation

In Fundamentals of Light Water Nuclear Reactor Physics and Operation, you'll learn ...

• The basics of nuclear cross-sections, the nuclear chain reaction, the neutron life cycle, and the factors that impact that life cycle
• Reactor physics and parameters that nuclear plant operators use to operate and control the reactors
• Reactivity coefficients, fission product poisons, and reactor period
• How the reactors are started up and controlled during normal plant operation

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 5 PDH

Length: 70 pages

Dr. Enrico Fermi's operation of the first nuclear reactor began at 3:25p.m. on December 2, 1942, in an improvised laboratory beneath the stadium at the University of Chicago. By today's standards it was a fairly crude apparatus - essentially an assembly of uranium and graphite bricks. The method of assembly, which was simply to place one brick on top of another, gave rise to the name "atomic pile"; "nuclear reactor" is now the preferred term.

Since then, several hundred nuclear reactors have been placed in operation in the United States. Currently, electrical generation by nuclear energy in the United States is second only to the burning of coal. In the world, nuclear energy provides the largest “baseload” of electrical generation capacity. As of this date, nuclear energy is used to produce electricity in 94 operating light water reactors in the United States with close to 350 world-wide. These light water reactors are of two types – Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) and Boiling Water Reactors (BWRs).

Since all nuclear power electrical generating stations rely on nuclear fission, this course will focus on describing the basic concepts and fundamentals of the physics involved in operating and controlling light water reactors without the use of complex mathematics.

Specifically, the course will begin with the basics of nuclear cross-sections, the nuclear chain reaction, the neutron life cycle, and the factors that impact that life cycle. The course will conclude with how the reactors are started up and controlled during normal plant operation. The course will also explain the reactor physics and parameters that nuclear plant operators use to operate and control the reactors. To ensure a working knowledge of the reactor physics involved in reactor operation (without the complex mathematics), this course will also include the topics of reactivity coefficients, fission product poisons, and reactor period.

Specific Knowledge or Skill Obtained

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

• What nuclear cross-sections are and their impact on the operation of the light water reactor.
• The concept of the effective neutron multiplication factor and how it is determined.
• Reactor criticality and how it is used in reactor operation.
• How plant parameters such as temperature, pressure, steam voids, and fuel temperature affect the reactor core through reactivity coefficients and how the plant operator compensates when these parameters change.
• Fission product poisons and how they affect the operation of the reactors.
• How the reactors are started up, operated, and controlled.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 26 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.