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Questions tagged [nuclear-engineering]

The study of radiation and radioactive materials and their creation, safety, and applications.

496 questions
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Why is nuclear waste more dangerous than the original nuclear fuel?

I know the spent fuel is still radioactive. But it has to be more stable than what was put in and thus safer than the uranium that we started with. That is to say, is storage of the waste such a big deal? If I mine the uranium, use it, and then bury…
Anthony B
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Why isn’t CERN afraid of a fusion reaction in the LHC?

Given that they can reach terrifying energies and temperatures, why isn’t fusion of protons a concern? After all, they start with a plasma and ram protons into each other. At some point the strong force will overcome the proton-proton electric…
aquagremlin
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Is it possible to send all nuclear waste on Earth to the Sun?

If we neglect the danger of unsuccessful lift-off of the rocket and the cost, would it be physically possible to send all nuclear waste on Earth to the Sun? Will there be an obstacle that prevents this? For example, solar winds?
Mubin Icyer
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What practical issues remain for the adoption of Thorium reactors?

From what I've read on thorium reactors, there's enormous benefit to them. Their fuel is abundant enough to power human civilization for centuries, their fission products are relatively short-lived, they're far less prone to catastrophic failure,…
GordonM
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Cause for spikes in Trinity nuclear bomb test

In Richard Rhodes' book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, I was reading about the Trinity nuclear test. High speed photos were taken and this one is from <1ms after the detonation. The book mentions the irregular spikes at the bottom of the image, but…
Ryan
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What stops us from creating a nuclear fusion reactor as we already have the hydrogen bomb working on the same principle of fusion?

I have been out of physics for some time now since my childhood, so please bear with me if the question below feels too novice. I grew up with the understanding that the nuclear fusion reaction is still a dream of many people as it's a source of…
Xinus
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Why don't modern spacecraft use nuclear power?

The Voyager 1 & 2 spacecraft launched in 1977 with Plutonium as their source of electricity. 34 years later they claim these two spacecraft have enough power to last them until at least 2020. That means they'll have had enough power to last them at…
John Conde
37
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9 answers

How large would the steam explosion at Chernobyl have been?

So the second episode of the HBO series began to cover the risk of a steam explosion that led to them sending three divers into the water below the reactor to drain the tanks. This occurred after the initial explosion that destroyed the reactor, and…
Nick S
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Nuclear Fusion: Why is spherical magnetic confinement not used instead of tokamaks in nuclear fusion?

In nuclear fusion, the goal is to create and sustain (usually with magnetic fields) a high-temperature and high-pressure environment enough to output more energy than put in. Tokamaks (donut shape) have been the topology of choice for many years.…
Valentina
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Why is water a good neutron absorber?

I've seen this question asked multiple times, and the answer is never detailed. I initially assumed that either hydrogen or oxygen had relatively large neutron absorption cross sections, however that is not the case, so what actually makes water a…
ryani42
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Why are cooling towers at nuclear power plants shaped the way they are?

The iconic cooling towers at most nuclear power plants are shaped like hyperboloids. Wikipedia mentions that this is because the wide base promotes thin film evaporation and the narrow point accelerates the laminar flow. Out of all the shapes with a…
templatetypedef
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How would a black hole power plant work?

A black hole power plant (BHPP) is something I'll define here as a machine that uses a black hole to convert mass into energy for useful work. As such, it constitutes the 3rd kind of matter-energy power (formerly "nuclear power") humans have…
Alan Rominger
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Is it possible to build a thermoelectric nuclear power plant?

Current nuclear power plants are essentially an enhanced version of a kettle, which seems like a stupidity caused by a lack of other options. We heat the water which turns to steam which rotates the turbine, which is total waste of energy due to the…
hijarian
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How do control rods work?

I understand the basic idea of nuclear fission: put a bunch of fissionable material together and let the neutrons fly. An atom gets split, kicking out a few more neutrons, which split other atoms, which release more neutrons, and then you have a…
Mason Wheeler
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Help! An 8 year old asked me how to build a nuclear power plant

I would really like to give an explanation similar to this one. Here's my current recipe: (i) Mine uranium, for example take a rock from here (picture of uranium mine in Kazakhstan). (ii) Put the rock in water. Then the water gets hot. (iii)…
crestmods
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