Nuclear safety systems

The three primary objectives of nuclear reactor safety systems as defined by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are to shut down the reactor, maintain it in a shutdown condition and prevent the release of radioactive material.

A reactor protection system is designed to immediately terminate the nuclear reaction. By breaking the chain reaction, the source of heat is eliminated. Other systems can then be used to remove decay heat from the core. All nuclear plants have some form of reactor protection system.

Control rods are a series of rods that can be quickly inserted into the reactor core to absorb neutrons and rapidly terminate the nuclear reaction. They are typically composed of actinides, lanthanides, transition metals, and boron, in various alloys with structural backing such as steel. In addition to being neutron absorbent, the alloys used also have to have at least a low coefficient of thermal expansion so that they do not jam under high temperatures, and they have to be self-lubricating metal on metal, because at the temperatures experienced by nuclear reactor cores oil lubrication would foul too quickly.

Boiling water reactors are able to scram the reactor completely with the help of their control rods. In the case of a Loss of coolant accident (LOCA), the water-loss of the primary cooling system can be compensated with normal water pumped into the cooling circuit. On the other hand, the standby liquid control system (SLC) consists of a solution containing boric acid, which acts as a neutron poison and rapidly floods the core in case of problems with the stopping of the chain reaction.

Pressurized water reactors on the other hand have to use boron solution in addition to the control rods to shut down the reactor. In the case of problems with the control rods, they are able to increase the normal concentration of boron in the coolant water rapidly, with the help of emergency boric acid tanks (SLC). In the case of LOCA, PWRs flood the core with water that auxiliarily contains further boron.

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