Fukushima Nuclear Reactor Problem Explained

This is the explanation video about the chain of events which have caused nuclear reactor

problems in Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. These problems were caused by

earthquake and following tsunami near to Sendai town in north-east of Tokyo.

The History of Nuclear Energy - First Nuclear Accident

Previously we have covered a number of topics regarding nuclear energy's first milestones, including the building of the first civilian nuclear reactor, the Obninsk Reactor. Today, the Nuclear Edition will cover a slightly bleaker topic, the first civilian nuclear reactor accident.

Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories

Chalk River Laboratories (CRL), formerly known as Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories (CRNL), is a Canadian nuclear research facility about 180 km north west of Ottawa in the province of Ontario. This site is a major research and development site for CANDU reactor technology, now widely used in Canada.

On 12 December 1952, a reactor shutoff rod failure, combined with operator errors, led to a major power excursion of more than double the reactor's rated output. The operators purged the reactor's moderator (heavy water), and the reaction halted in under 30 seconds. A cover gas system failure led to hydrogen explosions, damaging the reactor core. As a result, 30 kg of uranium were released, with irradiated water coolant leaking into the reactor building. Fortunately, this accident caused no immediate fatalities or injuries, and none of the exposed workers showed long term health effects.

This incident, while not disastrously fatal, may have lead some people to dismissing nuclear energy as a feasible source of energy due to the risks involved. Some may even go so far as to say, if the Chalk River Nuclear Laboratories were not built in the first place, no accident would have happened. I of course agree with that statement. However, advancements come with risks and sacrifices. Surely there were accidents when fire was first used. People have died in coal mines. Offshore oil platforms are not the safest place in the world either. 100 years in the future, no one would even think about dismissing nuclear energy, because it is the only viable source of clean and sustainable energy our planet has right now.

Future 39th US President Jimmy Carter, then a Lieutenant in the US Navy, was among the cleanup crew.


Source: www.wikipedia.org

The History of Nuclear Energy - The Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station

Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station

Previously, The Nuclear Edition posted an article on the world's first nuclear power plant, the Obninsk Nuclear Power Station. In this latest article on The History of Nuclear Energy, we will be writing about the first nuclear power plant to be used commercially, the Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station. 

At the behest of Prime Minister Winston Curchill in 1952, designing work for Calder Hall Power Station was started by Christopher Hinton. The Industrial Group of the Atomic Energy Authority established the design team for this particular project. In a relatively short construction and commissioning time, nuclear power was transmitted to the UK's National Grid in August 1956, after work started only 3 years prior.

At its peak of operation, the Calder Hall Power Station generated 196 MW of electricity, as much as four times its power generation when it was first opened. The equipments used in the Calder Hall Power Station included eight 3000 rpm turbines and four hyperbolic concrete cooling towers measuring 90 meters high.

Initially Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station's primary objective was to produce weapons-grade plutonium and not electricity generation. The UK government announced in April 1995 that all production of plutonium for weapons had ceased.

Storage pond for spent nuclear fuel

Having run for 47 years, the Calder Hall Nuclear Power Station was decommissioned in March 2003, by which time it was the oldest Magnox station in the world.

According to the British Nuclear Group, Calder Hall generated enough power to run a three-bar radiator for 2.85 million years in its 47 years of operation!

Sources: 

http://www.guardian.co.uk

http://www.engineering-timelines.com

The History of Nuclear Energy - The Very First Nuclear Power Plant

The very first civilian nuclear power station in the world to produce electricity and also Russia's first nuclear power plant was the 6 MW Obninsk Nuclear Power Station built in 1954. The Obninsk Nuclear Power Station was built in the city of Obninsk, about 110km from Moscow. The station was also known as APS-1 Obninsk (Atomic Power Station 1 Obninsk).

Nuclear reactor hall at Obninsk Power Station

The single reactor unit was named AM-1 which is Russian for Atom Mirny, or "peaceful atom". This reactor was a forerunner of the RBMK reactors which was used in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant incident. 

Started its operation in June 1954, Obninsk Power Station remained the only nuclear power station in the Soviet Union for around 10 years, and was decommissioned on 29 April 2002.

The very first nuclear power station built had a total capacity of 6MW. In comparison, nuclear reactors today are able to produce up to 1315MW of energy!

Source: Russian Nuclear Energy

The History of Nuclear Energy - The Origin

Ancient Greek philosophers first developed the idea that all matter is composed of invisible particles called atoms. The word atom comes from the Greek word, atomos, meaning indivisible. Scientists in the 18th and 19th centuries revised the concept based on their experiments. By 1900, physicists knew the atom contains large quantities of energy. British physicist Ernest Rutherford was called the father of nuclear science because of his contribution to the theory of atomic structure. In 1904 he wrote:

If it were ever possible to control at will the rate of disintegration of the radio elements, an enormous amount of energy could be obtained from a small amount of matter.

Albert Einstein developed his theory of the relationship between mass and energy one year later. The mathematical formula is E=mc2, or “energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.” 

It took almost 35 years for someone to prove Einstein’s theory.