Pressurized heavy-water reactor

A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear reactor, commonly using unenriched natural uranium as its fuel, that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D₂O) as its coolant and neutron moderator. The heavy water coolant is kept under pressure, allowing it to be heated to higher temperatures without boiling, much as in a pressurized water reactor. While heavy water is significantly more expensive than ordinary light water, it creates greatly enhanced neutron economy, allowing the reactor to operate without fuel-enrichment facilities (offsetting the additional expense of the heavy water) and enhancing the ability of the reactor to make use of alternate fuel cycles.

Purpose of using heavy water

The key to maintaining a nuclear reaction within a nuclear reactor is to use the neutrons released during fission to stimulate fission in other nuclei. With careful control over the geometry and reaction rates, this can lead to a self-sustaining chain reaction, a state known as "criticality".

Natural uranium consists of a mixture of various isotopes, primarily ²³⁸U and a much smaller amount (about 0.72% by weight) of ²³⁵U.^{[1] 238}U can only be fissioned by neutrons that are relatively energetic, about 1 MeV or above. No amount of ²³⁸U can be made "critical" since it will tend to parasitically absorb more neutrons than it releases by the fission process. ²³⁵U, on the other hand, can support a self-sustained chain reaction, but due to the low natural abundance of ²³⁵U, natural uranium cannot achieve criticality by itself.

The "trick" to making a working reactor fuelled by natural or low enriched Uranium is to slow enough of the neutrons to the point where their probability of causing nuclear fission in ²³⁵U increases to a level that permits a sustained chain reaction in the uranium as a whole. This requires the use of a neutron moderator, which absorbs some of the neutrons' kinetic energy, slowing them down to an energy comparable to the thermal energy of the moderator nuclei themselves (leading to the terminology of "thermal neutrons" and "thermal reactors"). During this slowing-down process it is beneficial to physically separate the neutrons from the uranium, since ²³⁸U nuclei have an enormous parasitic affinity for neutrons in this intermediate energy range (a reaction known as "resonance" absorption). This is a fundamental reason for designing reactors with discrete solid fuel separated by moderator, rather than employing a more homogeneous mixture of the two materials.

Water makes an excellent moderator; the hydrogen atoms in the water molecules are very close in mass to a single neutron, and the collisions thus have a very efficient momentum transfer, similar conceptually to the collision of two billiard balls. However, despite being a good moderator, water is relatively effective at absorbing neutrons. Using water as a moderator will absorb so many neutrons that there will be too few left to react with the small amount of ²³⁵U in the fuel, thus precluding criticality in natural uranium. Instead, in order to fuel a light-water reactor, first the amount of ²³⁵U in the uranium must be increased, producing enriched uranium, which generally contains between 3% and 5% ²³⁵U by weight (the waste from this process is known as depleted uranium, consisting primarily of ²³⁸U). In this enriched form there is enough ²³⁵U to react with the water-moderated neutrons to maintain criticality.

One complication of this approach is the need for uranium enrichment facilities, which are generally expensive to build and operate. They also present a nuclear proliferation concern; the same systems used to enrich the ²³⁵U can also be used to produce much more "pure" weapons-grade material (90% or more ²³⁵U), suitable for producing a nuclear bomb. This is not a trivial exercise by any means, but feasible enough that enrichment facilities present a significant nuclear proliferation risk.

An alternative solution to the problem is to use a moderator that does not absorb neutrons as readily as water. In this case potentially all of the neutrons being released can be moderated and used in reactions with the ²³⁵U, in which case there is enough ²³⁵U in natural uranium to sustain criticality. One such moderator is heavy water, or deuterium-oxide. Although it reacts dynamically with the neutrons in a fashion similar to light water (albeit with less energy transfer on average, given that heavy hydrogen, or deuterium, is about twice the mass of hydrogen), it already has the extra neutron that light water would normally tend to absorb.

Advantages and disadvantages

The use of heavy water as the moderator is the key to the PHWR (pressurized heavy water reactor) system, enabling the use of natural uranium as the fuel (in the form of ceramic UO₂), which means that it can be operated without expensive uranium enrichment facilities. The mechanical arrangement of the PHWR, which places most of the moderator at lower temperatures, is particularly efficient because the resulting thermal neutrons are "more thermal" than in traditional designs, where the moderator normally is much hotter. These features mean that a PHWR can use natural uranium and other fuels, and does so more efficiently than light water reactors (LWRs).

Pressurised heavy-water reactors do have some drawbacks. Heavy water generally costs hundreds of dollars per kilogram, though this is a trade-off against reduced fuel costs. The reduced energy content of natural uranium as compared to enriched uranium necessitates more frequent replacement of fuel; this is normally accomplished by use of an on-power refuelling system. The increased rate of fuel movement through the reactor also results in higher volumes of spent fuel than in LWRs employing enriched uranium. However, since unenriched uranium fuel accumulates a lower density of fission products than enriched uranium fuel, it generates less heat, allowing more compact storage.^[2]

Nuclear proliferation

Opponents of heavy-water reactors suggest that such reactors pose a much greater risk of nuclear proliferation than comparable light water reactors. These concerns stem from the fact that during normal reactor operation, uranium-238 in the natural uranium fuel of a heavy-water reactor is converted into plutonium-239 (via neutron capture followed by two β⁻ decays). Plutonium-239 is a fissile material suitable for use in nuclear weapons. As a result, if the fuel of a heavy-water reactor is changed frequently, significant amounts of weapons-grade plutonium can be chemically extracted from the irradiated natural uranium fuel by nuclear reprocessing. In this way, the materials necessary to construct a nuclear weapon can be obtained without any uranium enrichment.

In addition, the use of heavy water as a moderator results in the production of small amounts of tritium when the deuterium nuclei in the heavy water absorb neutrons, a very inefficient reaction. Tritium is essential for the production of boosted fission weapons, which in turn enable the easier production of thermonuclear weapons, including neutron bombs. It is unclear whether it is possible to use this method to produce tritium on a practical scale.

The proliferation risk of heavy-water reactors was demonstrated when India produced the plutonium for Operation Smiling Buddha, its first nuclear weapon test, by extraction from the spent fuel of a heavy-water research reactor known as the CIRUS reactor.^[3]

See also

• CANDU reactor
• List of nuclear reactors
• Pressurized water reactor

References

• Economics of Nuclear Power from Heavy Water Reactors
• Nuclear Power Program – Stage1 – Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor

External links

• Official website of AECL