Nuclear Reactor Vessel

 

    You might wonder where all the energy is produced in a nuclear reactor and how massive amounts of energy are controlled and kept away from bursting open the entire facility.

    The reactor vessel is a pressure vessel (a closed container designed to hold gases and liquids at a higher pressure than the ambient pressure) in which the coolant and the nuclear core are held. It is a container designed in such a way that it allows full control over the most important reactions that take place in a nuclear power plant. In order to produce optimum quantities of energy, the core, coolant and other components must be kept at a certain temperature and pressure. The vessel is build in order to make things easier and safer.

    The types of nuclear power plants are not classified by type of vessel but by type of nuclear coolant. For more information visit http://aboutnuclearphysics.blogspot.com/2010/07/types-of-nuclear-reactors.html

    Of the main classes of reactor with a pressure vessel, the PWR is unique in that the pressure vessel suffers significant neutron irradiation (called fluence) during operation, and may become brittle over time as a result. In particular, the larger pressure vessel of the BWR is better shielded from the neutron flux, so although more expensive to manufacture in the first place because of this extra size, it has an advantage in not needing annealing to extend its life.

    Note: fluence is the flux integrated over time. For particles, it is defined as the total number of particles that intersect a unit area in a given amount of time. It is considered one of the fundamental units in dosimetry.