Nuclear Reactor Research & Other Interests | A Blog

This is my blog that documents my research and data collection on topics that fascinate or interest me! A majority of this is reactor research; which is listed below. However, I have other interests that are documented, and this blog is updating regularly as a research and document new prospects.

Nuclear Reactors

My main interest that I spend the most time researching are Nuclear ReactorsNuclear ReactorIn it's most simplest form, a nuclear reactor uses Uranium and other radioactive materials and the fission from uranium to create heat, and transfer that heat into steam to create power. Nuclear reactors are one of the biggest sources of energy, although not renewable, uranium has a very high energy density resulting in massive power transmissions. There are many different types of nuclear reactors, and this term serves as a broad hub/introduction for each type. After uranium is used in reacto. Reactors are our world's best source of energy that is both plentiful and constant. Modern plants can produce upwards of 1000MWe, and even vintage plants can produce a staggering amount of energy. The safety of nuclear energy is astounding; yet massive accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima ReactorFukushima ReactorThe purpose of this page is to inform people of what happened at Fukushima and the reactor incident, and to give information about the plant itself. (present tense will be used throughout this) Fukushima Reactor Fukushima Daiichi NPP is plant that hosts 6 BWR reactors, using Light Water. This resulted in Fukushima being capable of delivering a combined power of 4.7 GWe (4700 MWe). Units 1, 2, and 6 were made by GE, 3 & 5 by Tobisha, and 4 by Hitachi. All 6 reactors were designed by GE. Unit 3 have resulted in a negative reputation regarding reactors. This blog serves this purpose: to primarily show the working parts and pieces that make up nuclear reactors and secondarily to dispel myths of reactors by clarifying often unclear or murky parts of reactors and presenting facts in a straight-forward way.

It may be said that this isn't typical research; there is no abstract, but the point of this is not to research in it of itself; as most of it is coagulating information from various sources and putting them on a interlinked blog, the point of this blog is not only to use my passion for nuclear energy for good use; it's also to demistify reactor operations -- for example, explaining systems using NRCNRCThe NRC has a important role in that it regulates the operation and regulation of Nuclear Reactors in the USA. This regulation is done by many means, one of which is reporting of all reactor activities daily. The regulation is scrutinized due to the risk of radiation contamination and the possibility of attacks or the usage of enriched uranium for weapons. The NRC also manages (In conjunction with OSHA and DOL) the radiation standards and regulations of workers. The NRC does not only work with documentation, and simplifying the documents to be understood by the everyday citizen; the biggest hamper to public nuclear energy is over-technical manuals and explanation AND over-simplified models.¹

Some pages I am most proud of researching include:

Hydrogen RecombinersHydrogen Recombinersactually called this Passive autocatalytic recombiner (Wikipedia) but this is a word jumble Most popular company that makes these is Framatone - which is a nuclear reactor based company. Hydrogen Recombiners are nifty devices that are integral to BWRs (and really most reactors). In the event of the zirconium alloy cladding on fuel rods mixing with the water, hydrogen is created, and this gas can lead to devastating explosions (Fukushima Reactor) Recombiners have plates/pellets coated with pla
Neutron Flux differences in LMFBR vs ThermalsNeutron Flux differences in LMFBR vs ThermalsThis image shows the major differences in Thermal and LMFBR enutron energy with the neutron flux as the y axis and energy as X. As neutron flux increases, thermal experiences a major slope downwards while in the .001 eV to 10 eV range, LMFBR doesn't even play a role - it is at a very high neutron flux and energy that LMFBR is effective Back to Thermal Reactor Back to Fast Neutron Reactor FNR vs Thermal NE-Flux.png
Fast Neutron ReactorFast Neutron ReactorA Fast Neutron Reactor is a specific type of reactor that different from a Thermal Reactor-- it is not very common because unlike a thermal reactor that uses neutron to sustain the chain reaction, a FNR has no neutron moderation and less primary coolant due to an excess of fast neutrons * the capture to fission ratio is lower is fast reactors * high number of neutron produced per one fission * Neutron Flux has differences too The following image shows the neutron flux differences 400 Neutron F
PWR reactorPWR reactorThis reactor is a PWR reactor - a pressurized water reactor. This is a specific type of Nuclear Reactor--in that it is pressurized water. This is also the most common type of reactor used and produced. The fuel rods are pressurized with helium, and the fission gas products result in more stability; as fuel "burns" in the reactor, the density increases resulting in small voids developing. Helium pressurization is necessary as these voids can cause potential rupture of fuel rods. Furthermore, the
ECCSECCSEmergency Core Cooling Systems encompass all of the emergency systems used in Nuclear Reactors. Inside of the RPV of a reactor is the reactor core, which gets hot due to fission during operation. In the event that primary cooling systems go offline due to a powerloss, LOCA, or other reason, ECCS systems are automatically enabled. ECCS broadly describes all of the emergency systems used, however specific emergency systems can be used in isolation. Some ECCS systems are specified for a specific d (Emergency Core Cooling Systems)

I am also working on several other interests!

Other Interests

Aviation

I do research into aviation especially the equipment and other types of info. For example, my thoughts on AI171 based on the preliminary report: AI171 Response on Prelim. ReportAI171 Prelim ResponseMy thoughts on the Air India 171 Crash * Based on preliminary report, fuel cutoff switches were switched off to each engine. * These switches in that aircraft have a specialized mechanism that requires an upward pull to release mecahnism * poor maintenance may have led these switches to be bumped as pilots said to another and asked if they were switched off and the other responded in the negative * Otherwise some speculation suggests a suicide * Flip guards were not installed which seems like a

Medical

I am working on a new topic - medical, including mental health, physical health, and equipment. For now, a few topics are linked. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderAttention Deficit Hyperactivity DisorderAlso called ADHD, is a disorder where a person experiences inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that is impairing and developmentally insufficient. These symptoms arise from Executive Dysfunction. ADHD can be separated usually into two cases. * Inattentive * Primarily inattentive, with trouble focusing on items * may be impulsive and have a hard time remembering things * Has a hard time focusing for a long time * Struggles to organize tasks * Hyperactivi

Misc.

Some miscellaneous information revolves around different things. A non-extensive list is provided below:

AI WatermarkingAI WatermarkingAccording to Tech Target, AI watermarking is to input a "unique, recognizable signal into the output of a AI model such as text OR images". In general, it should be both * Invisible to the naked eye * Extractable using specialized software or algorithms It is relatively new, but faces interest as people want to know if images are genuine or AI generated. Benefits of AI watermarking would be to * Prevent spreading of AI misinformation * Indicate authorship * Establishing authenticity * Help
ElectricityElectricityElectricity is literally power that flows from lower potential to higher potential - electrons flow from negative to positive, current flows from positive to negative - as if the electrons are the pipe allowing for the equilibrium to be maintained. Math Breakdown Amps - A Voltage - V Wattage - W Resistance - Ohms - Horseshoe Symbol W = AV Amps is the amount of current, and voltage is the potential difference. For example, in a tv remote, the circuit board requires 3V of power, which is suppl
Julian DatesJulian DatesThese are dates sometimes used for best-by dates or for shorthand dates on food products and such The way to recognize these is that they have five letters. YYDDD The first two letters are the YY and they are the last two of the date. The last three is literally which day it is. ex: || |--| |Date: 01-May-2012| |Julian Date: 12122| importantly, This tool can only convert date values after Jan 1, 1970.
ACTACTACT is a for profit company (used to be nonprofit but then a private equity firm came in (Nexus Capital)) In addition to the ACT test, ACT programs include ACT Academy, ACT Aspire, ACT CollegeReady, ACT Online Prep, Mawi Learning, ScootPad, PreACT and PreACT 8/9, ACT Tessera, ACT WorkKeys, ACT Work Ready Communities, and the National Career Readiness Certificate. The actual test The test is divided into multiple portions English English consists of 45 min for 75 questions. These 75 question

Site Work and Backlog

As I am actively working on my research in my spare time, I often forget what I am working on; I will place future research topics that are going to be researched soon or unfinished pages here.

To-Do Research ListTo-Do Research List* Breeder Reactor * many unfinished pages at radiation meters * how do cable cars get their electricity? * actually do uranium * Fukushima and Chernobyl * Control rods * RBMK reactor - expand * clear out empty page tags * finish up WIP tags * Expand Fuel Rods with info about CANDU, etc * Actually write a page about CANDU reactors * Finish ADHD * CPR *

Footnotes

Sidenote: How did I manage to use multiple semicolons in a sentence like this? I presume that this sentence is almost certainly a run-on sentence but I do like how I wrote it. ↩