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In a nuclear power plant, the reactor vessel is a pressure vessel
Pressure vessel

A pressure vessel is a closed container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure different from the ambient pressure.The pressure differential is potentially dangerous and many fatal accidents have occurred in the history of their development and operation....
 containing the coolant
Coolant

A coolant is a fluid which flows through a device in order to prevent its overheating, transferring the heat produced by the device to other devices that utilize or dissipate it....
 and reactor core
Nuclear reactor core

A nuclear reactor core is that portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the Nuclear fission take place....
.

Not all power reactors have a reactor vessel. Power reactors are generally classified by the type of coolant rather than the by the configuration of the reactor vessel used to contain the coolant. The classifications are:



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
Fluence

In physics, fluence or integrated flux is defined as the number of particles that intersect a unit area . Its units are m–2 . In particular, it is used to describe the strength of a radiation field, in which case the unit used is J/m2....
) during operation, and may become brittle over time as a result.






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In a nuclear power plant, the reactor vessel is a pressure vessel
Pressure vessel

A pressure vessel is a closed container designed to hold gases or liquids at a pressure different from the ambient pressure.The pressure differential is potentially dangerous and many fatal accidents have occurred in the history of their development and operation....
 containing the coolant
Coolant

A coolant is a fluid which flows through a device in order to prevent its overheating, transferring the heat produced by the device to other devices that utilize or dissipate it....
 and reactor core
Nuclear reactor core

A nuclear reactor core is that portion of a nuclear reactor containing the nuclear fuel components where the Nuclear fission take place....
.

Not all power reactors have a reactor vessel. Power reactors are generally classified by the type of coolant rather than the by the configuration of the reactor vessel used to contain the coolant. The classifications are:

  • Light water reactor
    Light water reactor

    The light water reactor or LWR is a type of thermal reactor, a reactor that uses a neutron moderator to reduce the speed of neutrons to low velocity thermal neutrons....
     - Includes the PWR
    Pressurized water reactor

    Pressurized water reactor are Generation II reactor nuclear reactors that use ordinary water under high pressure as coolant to remove heat generated by nuclear chain reaction from nuclear fuel, and as the neutron moderator to thermalise the neutron flux so that it interacts with the nuclear fuel to maintain the chain reaction....
    , BWR
    Boiling water reactor

    A boiling water reactor is a type of nuclear reactor developed by the Idaho National Laboratory and General Electric in the mid-1950s. In the present, General Electric specializes in the design and construction of this type of reactor....
    . Vast majority of nuclear power reactors are of this type.
  • Graphite moderated reactor - Includes the Chernobyl Reactor RBMK
    RBMK

    RBMK is an acronym for the Russian reaktor bolshoy moshchnosti kanalniy which means "High Power Channel Type Reactor", and describes a class of graphite moderated reactor nuclear reactor which was built in the Soviet Union for use in nuclear power plants to produce nuclear power from nuclear fuel....
     that has a highly unusual reactor configuration compared to the vast majority of nuclear powerplants in Russia or around the world.
  • Gas cooled thermal reactor - Includes the AGR
    Advanced gas-cooled reactor

    An advanced gas-cooled reactor is a type of nuclear reactor. These are the generation II reactor of British gas-cooled reactors, using Nuclear graphite as the neutron moderator and carbon dioxide as coolant....
    ,the Gas Cooled Fast Breeder Reactor or GCFR, and the HTGR. An example of a Gas Cooled Reactor is the British Magnox
    Magnox

    Magnox is a now obsolete type of nuclear reactor which was designed and is still in use in the United Kingdom, and was exported to other countries, both as a power plant, and, when operated accordingly, as a producer of plutonium for nuclear weapons....
    .
  • Heavy water reactor
    Heavy water reactor

    Heavy water reactors use heavy water as a neutron moderator. Heavy water is deuterium oxide, D2O. Neutrons in a nuclear reactor that uses uranium must be slowed down so that they are more likely to split other atoms and get more neutrons released to split other atoms....
     - Utilize heavy water, or water with a higher than normal proportion of the hydrogen isotope deuterium in some manner, however it should be noted that D2O (heavy water) is more expensive and may be used as a main component, but not necessarily as a coolant in this case. An example of a heavy water reactor is Canada's CANDU reactor.
  • Liquid metal cooled reactor
    Liquid metal cooled reactor

    A Liquid metal cooled nuclear reactor, liquid metal fast reactor or LMFR is an advanced type of nuclear reactor where the primary coolant is a liquid metal....
     - Utilize a liquid metal, such as sodium
    Sodium

    Sodium is an element which has the symbol Na , atomic number 11, atomic mass 23 amu , and a common oxidation number +1. Sodium is a soft, silvery white, highly reactive element and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1" ....
     or a lead
    Lead

    Lead is a main-group Chemical element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metal ....
    -bismuth
    Bismuth

    Bismuth is a chemical element that has the symbol Bi and atomic number 83. This heavy, brittle, white crystalline trivalent poor metal has a pink tinge and chemically resembles arsenic and antimony....
     alloy
    Alloy

    An alloy is a partial or complete solid solution of one or more chemical element in a metallic matrix. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may be homogeneous in distribution depending on thermal history....
     to cool the reactor core.
  • Molten Salt Reactors - Special organic coolants are used in this unique design, such as the MSBR.


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
Fluence

In physics, fluence or integrated flux is defined as the number of particles that intersect a unit area . Its units are m–2 . In particular, it is used to describe the strength of a radiation field, in which case the unit used is J/m2....
) 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
Annealing (metallurgy)

Annealing, in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat treatment wherein a material is altered, causing changes in its properties such as strength and hardness....
 to extend its life.

Annealing of PWR reactor vessels to extend their working life is a complex and high-value technology being actively developed by both nuclear service providers (AREVA
Areva

AREVA is a Government-owned corporation multinational industrial Conglomerate that is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects....
) and operators of PWRs.

See also

  • Nuclear reactor technology
  • Nuclear physics
    Nuclear physics

    Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei.The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power and nuclear weapons, but the research field is also the basis for a far wider range of applications, including in the medical sector , in materials engineering...
  • Nuclear reactor physics
    Nuclear reactor physics

    Most nuclear reactors use a chain reaction to induce a controlled rate of nuclear fission in fissile material, releasing both nuclear power and free neutrons....