On Fri, 29 Apr 2005 01:40:09 GMT, "JRJohnson"
wrote:


wrote in message
oups.com...

Tim Williams wrote:
"JRJohnson" wrote in message
...
Nuclear power plant fuel rod?????
Ooops!!!!

Believe it or not, that thought (fuel rod) occurred to me, but
since I am
still here and not glowing, I presume that it wasn't radioactive.

It takes a hell of a dose of radiation to produce symptoms within
hours of exposure. Also the effects are cumulative. If the fuel
rod were used, lots of people including yourself would be in big
trouble. If it were unsused, you are probably OK but some other
people will still be in big trouble.


Well, I doubt the casing itself would have much residual
radioactivity,
despite the large neutron flux it handles in use.


Uh, 'much' is a relative term. As noted above, the effects of
exposure are cumulative.


Zr isn't magnetic though, and likely throws bright white sparks just
like
titanium. I'm not aware of any iron alloys, seems to me it'd be
brittle,
but it might exist. (Nothing with 10% of each comes up on Matweb.)


The casing for most reactor fuel is called zircaloy, don't know the
composition of that alloy. TRIGA's use some sort of stable hydride
(though maybe inside a thin layer of something else).

--

FF

Do fuel rods have an outer sheath of mild steel? Don't think so, but this
was obviously constructed to hold the 'swarf' (for lack of a better term) in
the center hole. Still beats the hell out of me.

Research into zirconium was productive only in that I learned that the
melting temp was around 3350 degrees F.

Still wondering, JRJ

As I recall, steel swells up with the bombardment from neutrons. And
sticks in the reactor. Which makes it hard to withdraw. Seems like the
Russians had this problem discovered the hard way. But it was a long
time ago.
ERS