The January issue discusses some of the technical decisions made by the designers of the first nuclear electric power stations, the CO2 cooled Magnox reactors in Great Britain and France.
For natural uranium reactors, primary selection criteria is a low neutron cross section. A material that absorbs more than its share of neutrons would prevent the reactor from being able to produce any power at all. After making the coolant and moderator choices, certain other details moved higher on the priority list. Core engineers needed…
In the early 1950s, PWR pressure vessels large enough for a submarine plant were within the capabilities of the existing manufacturing infrastructure, but vessels large enough for electrical power generating stations were not. Like the American pressurized water reactor systems, gas cooled reactors operate at elevated pressures. Unlike water, however, which is kept under extreme…
Interestingly enough, the first industrial scale nuclear power plant for electrical production was Calder Hall 1, a carbon dioxide cooled reactor that began supplying Great Britain in May, 1956. This reactor and others like it have been reliable, long-lived sources of electrical power. In the December 1995 issue we focused on the design decisions made…
During the period from 1946 until 1954, the single most important constraint governing the development of peaceful uses of atomic power was the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. This American law – passed after a failed attempt to establish an international control regime for nuclear materials – made it illegal to trade in nuclear knowledge…