Nuclear energy

Nuclear energy

Nuclear binding energy is the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom into its component parts. The component parts are neutrons and protons, which are collectively called nucleons. The binding energy of nuclei is always a positive number, since all nuclei require net energy to separate them into individual protons and neutrons.

Industry: Energy

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Nuclear energy

Auxiliary feedwater

Energy; Nuclear energy

Backup water supply used during nuclear plant startup and shutdown to supply water to the steam generators during accident conditions for removing decay heat from the reactor.

Boiling-water reactor (BWR)

Energy; Nuclear energy

A common nuclear power reactor design in which water flows upward through the core, where it is heated by fission and allowed to boil in the reactor vessel. The resulting steam then drives turbines, ...

Chemical recombination

Energy; Nuclear energy

Following an ionisation event, the positively and negatively charged ion pairs may or may not realign themselves to form the same chemical substance they formed before ionization. Thus, chemical ...

Stochastic effects

Energy; Nuclear energy

Effects that occur by chance, generally occurring without a threshold level of dose, whose probability is proportional to the dose and whose severity is independent of the dose. In the context of ...

Subcritical mass

Energy; Nuclear energy

An amount of fissionable material insufficient in quantity or of improper geometrical configuration to sustain a fission chain reaction.

Subcriticality

Energy; Nuclear energy

The condition of a nuclear reactor system, in which nuclear fuel no longer sustains a fission chain reaction (that is, the reaction fails to initiate its own repetition, as it would in a reactor's ...