INTRODUCTION

POWER plays a very important role in the development of any country.The industrial and economic growth of a country depends on the quality and quantity of quality production.In a developing country like INDIA generation of power should be sufficient to satisfy the industrial growth,agriculture,household and other needs.Power can be produced by non-conventional sources,thermal power,hydro power plants,nuclear power plants etc.Inspite of producing 1 lakh eighty thousand MW of power we still fall short of 30% of the actually required power and this is the case when power is supplied irregularly i.e. there are frequent power cuts in the areas where it is supplied.Most of the parts of our country does not have power and many of the people,even till date,do not know what is electricity.the per capita consumption of power is the criteria for showing how prosperous a country is.In CANADA the per capita consumption of power is 17307 ,in CHINA it is 1781 KWh and in INDIA it is just 600/400 KWh.Thus we can see how much we lag than other nations.Therefore regarding todays scenario we need to produce more power and that too in an efficient manner.

WHY NUCLEAR POWER? The exploration of natural resources has been an evolutionary process over the years.It has progressed from tapping the potent of falling water to the burning of fossil fuels.But the quest for more sources of electricity which is cleanest and most efficient form of energy is unending and the limits of conventional sources have served to heighten mans anxious efforts in this regard.The discovery of fission and promise of abundance, which nuclear energy came to hold,subsequently turned,mans attention to utilize the potential of this source. Considering the current population growth which has already crossed 100cr in the 21st century improvement in the stand of living of the forthcoming generations,there will be a large increase in the need of electrical energy,particularly,from clean,green and safe energy sources.Among all the available conventional and non-conventional sources of energy,the nuclear

energy is the most efficient,abundantly available,sustainable and cost effevtive energy source.Considering the world CO2 emissions,according to the ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION,after CHINA and U.S.,among major pollutants only INDIA is expected to have significant growth of emission over next 20 years.The nuclear energy is most safest and the cleanest one since it does not emit obnoxious gases that causes global warming,ozone hole,acid rain and other environmental disaster.

SO THE NUCLEAR POWER It is thus evident that nuclear energy, which is a large addition to our energy resources, has to be developed a big way.The nuclear fuel such as uranium, has its reserves about 70 thousand tonnes and can support 10,000MW of energy for a designed life of 30 years.The long range potential of nuclear energy in INDIA, however depends on its vast reserves of thorium, which is estimated at 3 lakh sixty-thousand tonnes which is equivalent to 600 billion tonnes of coal.

RAJASTHAN ATOMIC POWER STATION INDIAS per capita consumption of electricity being very less and leading to low standard of living,less industralisation/mechanization and development is simply because of the difference in the demand and supply.Dedicated to improve the nations present scenario RAJASTHAN ATOMIC POWER PLANT(RAPP) was built at RAWATBHATA.

RAWTBHATA, an ideal site for Nuclear power plant NUCLEAR POWER CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD. (NPCIL) is a public sector undertaking under the administrative control of Department of Atomic Energy(DAE),Government of India.NPCIL was formed in the year 1987.

Rawatbhata,a remote village in Chittorgarh district about 64 kms,from kota,an industrial city of Rajasthan,is situated in the Chambal Valleys.The land selected is in between Rana Pratap Sagar Dam and Gandhisagar Dam at the right banks of Chambal river.The water from the reservoir of Rana Pratap Sagar Dam serves the requirements of Nuclear Power Stations.The site is well connected by Western Railway as well as National highway No 3and 8.Further the area is found to be suitable from seismic track records as well as from air trajectory/accident attacks from enemies.Taking into consideration these aspects,Rawtbhata has been chosen for the construction of nuclear power plants by NPCIL.

NPCILS MISSION: To develop nuclear power technology and to produce nuclear

power as a safe, environmentally benign and an economically viable source of electrical energy to meet the increasing electricity needs of the country.

SITE SELECTION: Government of India has constituted a site selection committee consisting of members representing different disciplines and agencies.The criterias that are followed for site sanctioning are as follows: LOCATION ACCESSIBILITY TOPOGRAPHY RAWATBHATA,CHITTORGARH district inland site,65 kms from kota city site of power station is sloping plateau;ground elevation varies from 354 to 410.

THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS IN INDIA:

LOCATION/STATION

TYPES OF REACTOR

CAPACITY DATE OF (MWS) COMM. OPR.

TARAPUR SITE TAPS-1 TAPS-2 TAPS-3 TAPS-4 KALPAKKAM MAPS-1 MAPS-2 NARORA NAPS-1 NAPS-2 KAKRAPARA KAPS-1 KAPS-2 KAIGA SITE KGS-1 KGS-2 KGS-3 RAWATBHATA RAPS-1 RAPS-2 RAPS-3 RAPS-4 RAPS-5 RAPS-6 RAPS-7

BWR BWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR PHWR

160 160 540 540 220 220 220 220 220 220 220 220 220 100 200 220 220

28-10-1969 28-10-1969 18-8-2006 12-9-2005 27-1-1984 21-3-1986 01-1-1991 01-7-1992 06-5-1993 01-9-1995 16-11-2000 16-3-2000 06-5-2007 16-12-1973 01-4-1981 01-6-1981 23-12-2000

UNDER CONSTR. RAPS-8

*PHWR:PRESSURISED HEAVY WATER REACTOR *BWR:BREEDER WATER REACTOR

ATOMIC MASSES: COMPOSITION OF NUCLEUS The mass of an atom is very small; for example the mass of carbon atom,12 C,is 1.992678*10-26kg.It is not very convenient to handle such small quantities, therefore,a mass unit for expressing the atomic masses was introduced.This unit is now defined by taking mass of 12C atom to be 12 atomic mass units(u).According to this definition, 1u=mass of
12

C atom

=====

The masses of many atoms are close to being integral multiples of the mass of a hydrogen atom.There are however many striking exceptions to this rule.For example,the atomic mass of chlorine atom is 35.46u.

A mass spectrometer,which is an improved version of Thompsons apparatus for the measurement of specific charge ,e/m ratio,is used for the measurement of atomic masses.The measurement of atomic masses revealed the existence of different varieties of the atoms of the same element.The different types of atoms of the same element exhibit similar chemical properties but differ from each other in their masses.Such atomic species of the same element are called isotopes.It was discovered that practically every element consists of mixture of several elements.The relative abundance of different isotopes differs from element to element.Cl,for example,has 2 isotopes having masses 34.98u and 36.98u,which are nearly integral multiples of the mass of a hydrogen atom.The relative abundances of these isotopes are 75.4 and 24.6% respectively. Thus the mass of natural Cl atoms is the weighted average of the masses of the 2 isotopes.That is , mass of natural chlorine atom =75.4*34.98+24.6*36.98

Which agrees with the atomic mass of Cl.This example thus illustrates that the atomic masses of individual isotopes of an element are close to integers.The observed atomic mass of the element is the weighted average of the atomic masses of the individual isotopes and may not be an integer. It depends on the relative abundance of various isotopes of the element in question. The lightest element,hydrogen has 3 isotopes having masses 1.0078u,2.0141u,and 3.0160u.the nucleus of the lightest atom of hydrogen,which has a relative abundance of 99.985%,is called the proton.The mass of a proton is Mp=1.0073u =1.6726*10-27kg This is equal to the mass of hydrogrn atom,which is 1.0078u,minus the mass of a single electron,

Me=0.00055u it contains.The other 2 isotopes of hydrogen are called deuterium and tritium. Tritium nuclei being unstable do not occur natiurally and are produced in processes involving nuclear changes. The proton carries one u of fundamental charge and is stable. The +ve charge in the nucleus is that of the protons. It was earlier thought that the nucleus may contain electrons, but this was ruled out later. Thus the nucleus does not contain any ve charge.The total number of protons in the nucleus of an atom has , therefore , to be exatly equal to the number of total electrons and hence equal to the atomic number Z. Since the nuclei of deuterium and tritium are isotopes of hydrogen,they must contain only 1 proton each.But the masses of the nuclei of hydrogen,deuterium and tritium are in the ratio of 1:2:3.Therefore the nuclei of deuterium and tritium must contain in addition to a proton,some neutral matter.The amount of neutral matter present in the nuclei of these isotopes expressed in units of mass of a proton,are approximately equal to 1 and 2,respectively.This fact indicates that the nuclei of atoms in addition to protons,contain neutral matter in multiples of a basic unit.The existence of neutral matter inside the nucleus had been hypothesized by Rutherford in as early as 1920.His arguments were purely speculative,and until 1932 no experimental evidence supporting them was available.In 1932,Bothe and Becker bombarded beryllium nuclei with -particles and observed a very penetrating radiation;they then showed that penetrating radiation was composed of gamma rays.Further study by Curie and Joliot gave the surprising result that this gamma radiation also had a component that was capable of imparting energies of several MeV to protons in a cloud chamber.At first,Curie and Joliot interpreted the observed energy transfer as =conservation.James Chadwick,however,soon provided the correct explanation.He showed that the recoil protons observed Curie and Joliot had been hit by a neutral particle of approximately protonic mass,which he called to determine the mass of the new particle as very nearly the same as the mass

of the proton.The emission of a neutron from beryllium nucleus could be understood as consequence of the reaction
4 2

He +94 Be 126 C+10 n

Chadwick was awarded the 1935 Nobel prize in physics for his discovery of neutron.The mass of the neutron is now known with a high degree of accuracy,i.e.mn= 1.00866u=1.6749*10-27kg.A free neutron, unlike a free proton is unstable.It decays into a proton,an e-,and a neutrino with a mean life of about 1000sec.It is, however,stable inside the nucleus.It is the nuclear force which keeps the neutrons and protons inside the nucleus and thus have a common name,nucleon. The total number of protons and neutrons inside the nucleus constitutes its mass number A,so A=Z+N Nuclear species are represented according to the notation AZX,where X is the chemical symbol of species.It is possible to assign each nucleus an effective radius given by r=r0A1/3 Where r0 is a constant.

NUCLEAR BINDING ENERGIES AND NUCLEAR STABILITY(RADIOACTIVITY) The mass of nucleus is equal to the total mass m of its individual protons and neutrons.However,the nuclear mass M is found to be always less than m.For example,let us take example of 168O;this nucleus has 8 neutrons and protons.We have, Mass of neutrons=8*1.00864u Mass of protons=8*1.00727u Mass of electrons=8*0.00055u

Atomic mass of 1680=16.0000u The mass of the 168O=Atomic mass of 168O nucleus =atomic mass of 168O-mass of 8 electrons =(16.00000-8*0.00055) u =15.9956u Total Mass of the constituents of the 168O nucleus = (8*1.00864+8*0.00727)u =16.12732u Thus,we find that the mass of the oxygen nucleus is less than the total mass of its constituents by 0.13176u.The difference in mass of a nucleus and its constituents is called the mass defect, M=Zmp+(A-Z)mn - M Using Einsteins mass energy relation, E=Mc2 This shows us that if a certain number of neutrons and protons are brought together to form a nucleus of a certain charge and mass,an energy Eb will be released in the process called the binding energy,whereas the binding energy per nucleon is Ebn that is equal to Eb/A.High mass number nuclei are prone to a process called spontaneous fusion While those with low mass number can undergo a process called fusion. The stability of nuclide is intimately connected to relative number of neutrons and protons is that nuclide.As unstable nuclide spontaneously emits a particle,without the stimulus of any outside agency,transforming itself into different nuclide.Such a nuclide is said to be radioactive and the process of transformation is termed as radioactive decay.Radioactivity is the generic name of the processA.H. Becquerel discovered radioactivity in 1896.While studying the fluorescence and phosphorescence of compounds irradiated with visible light,Becquerel observed an interesting phenomenon.After illuminating

some piece of uranium-potassium sulphate with visible light,he wrapped them in black paper and separated the package from photographic plate by a piece of silver.After several hours exposure,the photographic plate was developed and showed blackening due to something that must have been emitted from the compound and was able to penetrate both the black paper and silver.Rutherford showed later that the emanations given by uranium sulphate were capable of ionizing the air in the space between 2 oppositely charged metallic plates.The current registered by a galvanometer connected in series with the circuit was taken as the measure of activity of the compound,which is an atomic phenomenon.Later Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie found that activity was not only associated with uranium but also radium and polonium.The result of this is 3 different kinds of emanations , and .-rays are 42He nuclei,emitted from radioactive nuclei.Emissions of -rays reduces the mass number of radionucleide by 4 and its atomic number by 2.-rays are electrons or particles called positrons that carry +e but otherwise identical to electrons.After the emission of this particle,the mass number remains unchanged but its atomic number is increased or decreased by one.

THE CHAIN REACTION: A typical reaction with Uranium-235 IS as follows:

235 92U

+ 0n136Kr95 + 56Ba139 + 20n1

The fission energy is available in form of heat energy,if this heat is removed from this place economically with help of some fluid which utilizes this energy in converting water into steam which rotates a turbine and spins the rotor of generator,and as a result of spinning the rotor of generator,electrical energy.from the above discussion it appears that the reactor in the nuclear power station role of furnace.For continuous and regular supply of electrical power the furnace should run continuously and systematically,otherwise there would be a lot of fluctuations in power levels,similarly in a nuclear station,the reactor must run continuously and in a systematic way.i.e the fission chain reaction must be maintained.In order to sustain a chain reaction the number

of neutrons available to cause fission must be same in each cycle of generation such that the value of multiplication factor must be unity and value of reactivity must be zero for certain level of power.in each fission of uranium235,2.5 neutrons on an average are produced.these neutrons are fast ones,and have a lots of energy of the order of MeV.Uranium-235 does not need fast neutrons for fission,rather it needs slow neutrons having energy of order 0.025 MeV for efficient fission.In order to extract the energy of neutrons,some substance is required which could extract the energy of neutrons but without absorbing them.Such a substance is known as moderator. PRINCIPLE OF NUCLEAR REACTOR When an unstable heavy nucleus is split into smaller nucleus a small amount of mass is converted into energy.The amount of energy produced is given by Einsteins mass energy relation E=mc2.This breaking up of nuclei is called nuclear fission.In natural Uranium, two types of isotopes, U238 and U235,are available,in the ratio 139:1.Natural uranium is the, fuel for the reactor.When this is stuck by a slow(thermal) neutron,it will split into two or more fragments. This splitting is accompanied by tremendous release of energy in the form of heat,radioactivity and two or three fast neutrons. These fast neutrons are made to slow down so that they have high probability of striking other U-235 atoms which in turn releases more energy and more of neutrons.Moderator achieves this with the help of heavy water.Attainment of self-sustained splitting of uranium atoms is chain reaction.There is a particular size of fissionable material for which neutron production by fission is exactly balanced by leakage and absorption.This is the critical size,at which chain reaction will be sustaining.When the chain reaction has been made self-sustaining,it is said that the reactor has gone critical.

NUCLEAR SYSTEM: FUEL MINING:The mining of natural uranium is done at Jadugura mines,Bihar.Every possible precaution against radiation hazard is taken out

there.The composition of natural uraium is thus 235 U(0.71%),238U(99.29%).Suppose we wish to design a reactor based on fission of 92235U by thermal neutrons.Enriched uranium facilitates energy generation by fission. Still a number of difficulties stand in the way of working reactor. 1)Neutron leakage: Some of the neutrons produced by fission will leak out of the reactor and cease to be a part of chain reaction.Leakage is a surface effect.We can make the fraction of neutrons lost by leakage as small as we wish by making the reactor core large enough. 2)The neutron energy:The neutrons produced by fission are fast,with kinetic energies of about 2MeV.However,fission is induced most effectively by thermal neutrons.Mixing uranium fuel with a substance called moderator can slow the neutrons down.Light nuclei work as most effective moderators for slowing down the neutrons.The most commonly used moderators are heavy water and graphite.Heavy water has less absorption probability of neutrons than ordinary water. 3)The neutron capture:As the fast neutrons(2MeV) generated by fission are slowed down in the moderator to thermal energies(about 0.04MeV),they must pass through a critical energy interval,between 1 to 100eV,in which they are particularly suceptible to non-fission capture by U-238.Such resonance capture,which results in emission of gamma rays,removes neutron from fission chain.To minimize such non-fission capture,the uranium fuel and moderator are not intimately mixed but are clumped together occupying different regions of the reactor volume. In a typical reactor uranium fuel is in the form of uranium oxide pellets,which are inserted end to end into long hollow metal tubes constituting the fuel rods.the liquid moderator surrounds the bundle of these rods,forming the reactor core.This geometric arrangement increases the probability that a fast neutron,produced in the fuel rod,will find themselves in the moderator when it passes through critical energy level.An important parameter is the ratio of number of neutrons present at the beginning of particular generation to the number present at the beginning of next generation.This ratio is called

multiplication factor(k);it is a measure of growth rate of neutrons in the reactor.For k=1,the reactor ic said to have gone critical

WHAT TYPES OF REACTORS ARE THERE? The basic operating principles of almost all the reactors are same, except the fact that they are designed differently.Given below are the different types of reactors:
Boiling Water Reactors (BWR) heat water in the core and allow it to boil into steam. The steam goes directly to the turbine outside the reactor.

In a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) water is kept under pressure to keep it from boiling, even at 300 C. The pressurized water is pumped through a closed system of pipes called the primary circuit. Heat from the primary circuit warms up water in the secondary circuit. The water in the secondary circuit comes to a boil and its steam turns the turbine. The water in the primary circuit returns to the reactor core after giving up some of its heat.

A Candu reactor is an example of a Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR). Fuel assemblies are placed horizontally in a tank called a calandria. Heavy water coolant is pumped through tubes containing the fuel assemblies to pick up the heat generated from the nuclear reaction. The coolant then moves to the steam generators to produce steam from ordinary water and back to the reactor. Heavy water is a rare but natural form of water and is the most effective moderator used in nuclear reactors to maintain continuous fissioning. Ordinary water is a combination of one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms (H2O). Heavy water is virtually identical, except each of the hydrogen atoms have an extra neutron. This hydrogen isotope is called deuterium (D). Since heavy water (D2O) has almost all the extra neutrons it wants, it slows neutrons in the reactor without significantly absorbing them. The advantage of heavy water is that it permits the use of unenriched uranium as fuel. This means two less steps are required in the conversion process resulting in a more economical fuel source. The Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) has a core of plutonium surrounded by rods of U-238. The U-238 nuclei absorb neutrons from the core and are transformed into plutonium (P-239). For every four atoms of plutonium that are used up in the core of the breeder, five new plutonium atoms are made from the U-238. Therefore, FBRs "breed" plutonium. Fast breeder reactors work at such a high temperature that they need a special coolant such as liquid sodium. In addition, they are not equipped with a moderator to slow down neutrons, and for this reason are called "fast" breeders.

Nuclear Power Reactors: Typical Characteristics

Type of Reactor BWR PWR PHWR (Candu)

Fuel Form Enriched Uranium Dioxide Enriched Uranium Dioxide Natural Uranium Dioxide

Coolant Water Water Heavy Water

Moderator Water Water Heavy Water

GCR AGR LWGR FBR

Natural Uranium Enriched Uranium Dioxide Enriched Uranium Dioxide Plutonium Oxide and Uranium Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide Carbon Dioxide Water Liquid Sodium

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