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[′zē‚nän ′ō·və‚rīd] (nucleonics) In a nuclear reactor, the excess reactivity provided to compensate for the poisoning effect of xenon buildup.

What does xenon do to a reactor?

Xenon-135 in particular tremendously affects the operation of a nuclear reactor because it is the most powerful known neutron poison. The inability of a reactor to be restarted due to the buildup of xenon-135 (reaches a maximum after about 10 hours) is sometimes referred to as xenon precluded start-up.

What is xenon in a nuclear reactor?

The iodine pit, also called the iodine hole or xenon pit, is a temporary disabling of a nuclear reactor due to buildup of short-lived nuclear poisons in the reactor core.

What is xenon burnout?

In the high-flux region, xenon-135 burnout allows the flux to increase further, while in the low-flux region, the increase in xenon-135 causes a further reduction in flux. The iodine concentration increases where the flux is high and decreases where the flux is low.

What is corium lava?

Corium, also called fuel-containing material (FCM) or lava-like fuel-containing material (LFCM), is a material that is created in the core of a nuclear reactor during a meltdown accident. It resembles natural lava in its consistency.

What is xenon used for?

Xenon is used in certain specialised light sources. It produces a beautiful blue glow when excited by an electrical discharge. Xenon lamps have applications as high-speed electronic flash bulbs used by photographers, sunbed lamps and bactericidal lamps used in food preparation and processing.

Is xenon natural or synthetic?

Xenon is a trace gas in Earth's atmosphere, occurring in one part in twenty million. The element is obtained commercially through extraction from the residues of liquefied air. This noble gas is naturally found in gases emitted from some mineral springs.

How did xenon build up in Chernobyl?

Because Xenon built up due to a rapid shut-down mainly caused by nearby coal plant problem, operators at Chernobyl retracted the control rods all the way out of the core only to notice power instabilities due to the inherent positive coolant void coefficient of the RBMK reactor and reinsert them.

How hot is a nuclear meltdown?

A primary form of energy from a nuclear explosion is thermal radiation. Initially, most of this energy goes into heating the bomb materials and the air in the vicinity of the blast. Temperatures of a nuclear explosion reach those in the interior of the sun, about 100,000,000° Celsius, and produce a brilliant fireball.

What would happen if you touched the elephants foot?

The Elephant's Foot is so deadly that spending only 30 seconds near it will result in dizziness and fatigue. Two minutes near it and your cells will begin to hemorrhage. By the time you hit the five-minute mark, you're a goner. Even after 30 years, the foot is still melting through the concrete base of the power plant.