CANDU Reactors?

Question

Hello.

I am studying about Nuclear Energy, and relating it to CANDU reactors. I am having a hard time understanding the process within these CANDU reactors. IF anybody who knows about this reaction, or is an expert in the field, please give me a simplified explanation of the system, involving the uses of fuel rods, heavy water, normal,water, and control rods.

Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

I don't know how much you know about nuclear engineering so I will keep this simple.

In a nuclear reactor there are four functions a material can have: fuel, moderate, poison, and coolant. The fuel is any material the fission and releases neutrons and energy. Typically uranium is the fuel of a nuclear reactor. A poison is a material that absorbs neutrons with out fissioning. This allows us to control how many neutrons there are, control rods are one example of a poison in a reactor. Moderators are materials that slow down neutrons. A slower neutron has a higher chance of causing fission in U-235. And coolants remove heat from the reactor.

In all US power reactors normal water is used as both the coolant and moderator. However normal water acts also an weak absorber too. This is basically why we have to slightly enrich Uranium before we can burn it in a reactor.
In the CANDU reactor the core is surrounded by heavy water only. Heavy does not absorb neutron, so the CANDU reactor can use natural Uranium. Around the heavy water flows normal water. The two waters do not mix, but the normal water removes the heat from the heavy water, and thus the normal water is the coolant. It is far enough from the core that its neutron properties do not play a significant role.

The down side to this system is that under certain situations the CANDU has positive feedback. This means that if the tempurature of the reactor increase just a small amout, the reactor will want to contiune to heat up. In order to build a reactor in the US, you can not have positive feedback.

There are a bunch of other unique features to CANDU, for instance in can be refueled online, but I just can't give justice to them here.

Answer 2

Ontario Power Generation

Answer 3

Candu doesn't only apply to atomic energy,it applies to life.Life will give u a challenge do u accept it or look for a better solution. I was a trouble shooter for N.A.S.A. an d traveled to many space stations to fix things that someone had missed. If u have a problem search everything u can get for a solution. Also not to make others look bad or whatever. Just research for the BEST solution.

Answer 4

It's fairly simple.

Fission heats water.

Pressurize the steam.

Heavy water is produced.

A heat exchanger takes the regular water out.


The regular water turns to steam and then rises and turns a turbine generating power.


As I recall from nuclear physics the fuel rods are used for fission and then control rods are used to regulate the reactor and keep it very safe.