Gas-cooled reactor

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Gas-cooled reactor

A Gas-cooled reactor (pronunciation: /gæs kʊld riˈæktər/) is a type of nuclear reactor where the primary coolant, or heat transfer agent, is a gas like helium, carbon dioxide, or air, instead of water which is used in most reactors.

Etymology

The term "Gas-cooled reactor" is derived from the English words "gas", "cooled", and "reactor". "Gas" (from the Greek word 'chaos' meaning 'empty space') refers to the state of matter that has no fixed shape or volume. "Cooled" is the past participle of "cool" (from the Old English 'col'), which means to lower the temperature. "Reactor" (from Latin 'reagere' meaning 'to react') in this context refers to a device used to initiate and control a nuclear chain reaction.

Types of Gas-cooled reactors

There are two main types of gas-cooled reactors:

  • Magnox reactor: This is an early design of a gas-cooled reactor, with the name derived from the magnesium-aluminium alloy used to encase the fuel rods.
  • Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (AGR): This is a second-generation gas-cooled reactor design, which uses graphite as the neutron moderator and carbon dioxide as the coolant.

Related Terms

  • Nuclear reactor: A device used to initiate and control a nuclear chain reaction.
  • Coolant: A fluid which flows around or through a device to prevent its overheating.
  • Neutron moderator: A medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, thereby turning them into thermal neutrons capable of sustaining a nuclear chain reaction.
  • Nuclear chain reaction: A series of nuclear reactions where the reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions.

External links

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