Light water reactor

Light water reactor

:"LWR" redirects here. See also: LWR (disambiguation)"A light water reactor or LWR is a thermal nuclear reactor that uses ordinary water, also called light water, as its neutron moderator. This differentiates it from a heavy water reactor, which uses heavy water as a neutron moderator. In practice all LWRs are also water cooled. While ordinary water has some heavy water molecules in it, it is not enough to be important in most applications.

The most common LWR are pressurized water reactors and boiling water reactors.

The Russian abbreviation for LWR is VVR (or sometimes WWR), meaning "water water reactor". Similarly, the Russian term for a PWR is VVER, meaning "water water energy reactor".

Many other reactors are also (light) water cooled, notably the RBMK and some military plutonium production reactors. These are not regarded as LWRs, as they are moderated by graphite, and as a result their nuclear characteristics are very different.

The light-water reactor uses uranium 235 as a fuel, enriched to approximately 3 percent. Although this is its major fuel, the uranium 238 atoms also contribute to the fission process by converting to plutonium 239 — about one-half of which is consumed in the reactor. Light-water reactors are generally refueled every 12 to 18 months, at which time, about 25 percent of the fuel is replaced.

Light water reactors tend to be simpler and cheaper to build than heavy water reactors. Power-generating capabilities are comparable.

Light water reactors are the type used by the U.S. military in its Naval nuclear powered vessels. This is so due to the inherent safety of these type reactors. Since light water is used as both a coolant and a moderator in these reactors, if one of these reactors suffers damage due to attack, and thereby compromise of the reactor core's integrity, the ensuing release of this light water acts to shut down the reactor. Moderators help to encourage the nuclear mass to achieve fission by lowering the average speed of the neutrons to a level which augments the probability of occurrence of neutron-Uranium collisions susceptible to lead to a Uranium nucleus fission. When the moderator is removed, the average energy of the neutrons becomes too high for the chain reaction to sustain itself.

Currently-offered LWRs include the ABWR, AP1000, ESBWR, European Pressurized Reactor, VVER and SWR-1000.

The reactors are used in nuclear power plants to produce nuclear power from nuclear fuel.

ee also

*Nuclear power
*List of nuclear reactors


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • light-water reactor — noun A reactor using normal water as moderator and coolant (abbrev LWR) • • • Main Entry: ↑light …   Useful english dictionary

  • Light water reactor — LWR ВВЭР водо водяной энергетический реактор. Корпусной энергетический реактор, теплоносителем и замедлителем в котором служит некипящая вода под давлением. Легководный реактор ядерный энергетический реактор, в котором обычная (легкая) вода… …   Термины атомной энергетики

  • Light water reactor — (LWR)   A nuclear reactor that uses water as the primary coolant and moderator, with slightly enriched uranium as fuel.   U.S. Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration s Energy Glossary   ***   A nuclear power unit that uses ordinary… …   Energy terms

  • Boiling water reactor — A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of nuclear reactor developed by the General Electric in the mid 1950s.Fact|date=April 2008 The BWR is characterized by two phase fluid flow (water and steam) in the upper part of the reactor core. See… …   Wikipedia

  • Supercritical water reactor — The Supercritical water reactor (SCWR) is a Generation IV reactor concept that uses supercritical water as the working fluid. SCWRs are basically LWRs operating at higher pressure and temperatures with a direct, once through cycle. As most… …   Wikipedia

  • 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 …   Wikipedia

  • boiling-water reactor — noun A light water reactor in which steam drives the turbines directly (see also ↑light water reactor under ↑light2, ↑pressurized water reactor under ↑pressure) • • • Main Entry: ↑boil …   Useful english dictionary

  • pressurized water reactor — noun a nuclear reactor that uses water as a coolant and moderator; the steam produced can drive a steam turbine • Syn: ↑PWR • Hypernyms: ↑water cooled reactor * * * pressurized water reactor noun A nuclear reactor using water cooling at a… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Boiling-water reactor — (BWR)   A light water reactor in which water, used as both coolant and moderator, is allowed to boil in the core. The resulting steam can be used directly to drive a turbine.   U.S. Dept. of Energy, Energy Information Administration s Energy… …   Energy terms

  • light-water-cooled graphite-moderated reactor — grafitinis vandens reaktorius statusas T sritis Energetika apibrėžtis Branduolinis šiluminių neutronų reaktorius, kurio neutronų lėtiklis yra grafitas, o šilumnešis vanduo. atitikmenys: angl. light water cooled graphite moderated reactor vok.… …   Aiškinamasis šiluminės ir branduolinės technikos terminų žodynas

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”