Nuclear Power plant

Subject: Science and tech

Context:

The third unit of the Kakrapar Atomic Power Project (KAPP-3) in Gujarat has achieved its first criticality.

Concept:

Nuclear fission

• In nuclear fission, an unstable atom splits into two or more smaller pieces that are more stable, and releases energy in the process.
• The fission process also releases extra neutrons, which can then split additional atoms, resulting in a chain reaction that releases a lot of energy.
• There are also ways to modulate the chain reaction by soaking up the neutrons.

Nuclear reactor:

• The energy released from nuclear fission can be harnessed to make electricity with a nuclear reactor.
• A nuclear reactor is a piece of equipment where nuclear chain reactions can be controlled and sustained.
• When a large, fissile atomic nucleus such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239 absorbs a neutron, it may undergo nuclear fission.
• The nucleus splits into two or more lighter nuclei, releasing kinetic energy, gamma radiation, and free neutrons.
• A portion of these neutrons may later be absorbed by other fissile atoms and trigger further fission events, which release more neutrons, and so on. This is known as a nuclear chain reaction.

Criticality

When a reactor’s neutron population remains steady from one generation to the next by creating as many new neutrons as are lost, the fission chain reaction is self-sustaining and the reactor’s condition is referred to as ” critical.”

Significance:

• KAPP-3 is the country’s first 700 MWe (megawatt electric) unit, and the biggest indigenously developed variant of the Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR).