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REACTOR FUEL ASSEMBLIES

Both boiling water reactor and pressurized water reactor fuel assemblies consist of the same major components.  These major components are the fuel rods, the spacer grids, and the upper and lower end fittings.  The fuel assembly drawing on page 1-11 shows these major components (pressurized water reactor fuel assembly). The fuel rods contain the ceramic fuel pellets.  The fuel rods are approximately 12 feet long and contain a space at the top for the collection of any gases that are produced by the fission process.  These rods are arranged in a square matrix ranging from 17 x 17 for pressurized water reactors to 8 x 8 for boiling water reactors. The spacer grids separate the individual rods with pieces of sprung metal.  This provides the rigidity of the assemblies and allows the coolant to flow freely up through the assemblies and around the fuel rods. Some spacer grids may have flow mixing vanes that are used to promote mixing of the coolant as it f...
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The World and Nuclear Fission

Purely as a physical phenomenon nuclear fission offers ample scope for intellectual problem-solving. If it implied nothing further it could be left to those specialists who might find satisfaction in its intellectual challenge; the rest of us could busy ourselves with other more pressing concerns. Unfortunately, nuclear fission  - as everyone knows  - implies much more than abstruse mathematical argument and donnish hairsplitting. Almost from the time it was first recognized, in 1938, nuclear fission has implied not merely articles in learned journals but major decisions of public policy. The social, economic and political context of nuclear fission has been from the beginning an essential factor in its development; in turn, it has exerted an extraordinary range of social, economic and political influence. To foresee with any clarity the shape of the nuclear future, a historical perspective is imperative. It is necessary to know not only how nuclear fission occurs,...
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Stormy night / Life on a boat

Compared to living on land where you are dry and safe from storms and torrential downpours, a life on a boat is a little different. For example, it's always a chore to drive back to your home (boat) during heavy weather. Our dinghy, as well as most other dinghies worldwide, has no roof like a car does so you'll always get wet and battered when moving between boat and land during rainfall. If there's a storm expected, like tonight, you'd need to take a few safety precautions to not put your home and yourself in too much danger when the worst of the storm passes by. A house stands for most of the time safely on the ground and we all rely upon it to shield us from any type of weather, whereas a boat is either tied up to a dock, hooked to the bottom of the sea with an anchor or two or tied to one or a couple of mooring buoys with a few lines. I believe it goes without saying that neither of these options, on the ever so changing sea, can ever be as safe as that house w...
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