Lecture

Introduction to Nuclear Engineering

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In course

ME-464: Introduction to nuclear engineering

This course is intended to understand the engineering design of nuclear power plants using the basic principles of reactor physics, fluid flow and heat transfer. This course includes the following: Reactor designs, Thermal analysis of nuclear fuel, Nuclear ...

Description

This lecture covers the fundamental principles of nuclear engineering, including safety systems, reactor design, and accident management procedures. Topics include reactor safety principles, relevant radionuclides, and components of safety barriers. The instructor discusses the importance of decay heat, safety analysis assumptions, and the Defense-in-Depth concept. The lecture also explores fuel cladding failure criteria, reactivity feedbacks, and the influence of rod ejection time on reactor behavior.

Instructors (3)

Andreas Pautz

Teaching & PhD PhD Students Sofia Portolan, Michel Saliba, Bishal Torrente, Alexis Paul Boris Claude Dupont-Bembinoff, Cynthia Camila Güttlein Past EPFL PhD Students Ting Zhu, Vladimir Vladimirov Brankov, Boris Aviv Hombourger, Damar Canggih Wicaksono, Petra Mala, Adolfo Rais, Valentyn Bykov, Daniel Jerôme Siefman, Evgeny Nikitin, Dionysios Chionis, Oskari Ville Pakari, Friederike Bostelmann, Jiani Gao, Efstathios Vlassopoulos, Alessandro Scolaro, Stefan Radman, Alexander Aures, Lubomír Bures, Ahmed Salah

Alessandro Scolaro

Carlo Fiorina

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Energy engineering

Nuclear power: Topics in nuclear power

Related concepts (32)

Nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid (water or gas), which in turn runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ship's propellers or turn electrical generators' shafts. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating.

Nuclear fuel

Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing and sustaining nuclear fission. The three most relevant fissile isotopes are uranium-233, uranium-235 and plutonium-239. When the unstable nuclei of these atoms are hit by a slow-moving neutron, they frequently split, creating two daughter nuclei and two or three more neutrons.

Pressurized water reactor

A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan and Canada). In a PWR, the primary coolant (water) is pumped under high pressure to the reactor core where it is heated by the energy released by the fission of atoms. The heated, high pressure water then flows to a steam generator, where it transfers its thermal energy to lower pressure water of a secondary system where steam is generated.

Nuclear reactor safety system

The three primary objectives of nuclear reactor safety systems as defined by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are to shut down the reactor, maintain it in a shutdown condition and prevent the release of radioactive material. A reactor protection system is designed to immediately terminate the nuclear reaction. By breaking the nuclear chain reaction, the source of heat is eliminated. Other systems can then be used to remove decay heat from the core. All nuclear plants have some form of reactor protection system.

Generation IV reactor

Generation IV reactors (Gen IV) are nuclear reactor design technologies that are envisioned as successors of generation III reactors. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) - an international organization that coordinates the development of generation IV reactors - specifically selected six reactor technologies as candidates for generation IV reactors. The designs target improved safety, sustainability, efficiency, and cost.

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