Decay heat is the heat

Heat

In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...

 released as a result of radioactive decay

Radioactive decay

Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...

. This is when the radiation interacts with materials: the energy of the alpha

Alpha particle

Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus, which is classically produced in the process of alpha decay, but may be produced also in other ways and given the same name...

, beta

Beta particle

Beta particles are high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons emitted by certain types of radioactive nuclei such as potassium-40. The beta particles emitted are a form of ionizing radiation also known as beta rays. The production of beta particles is termed beta decay...

 or gamma radiation is converted into the thermal movement of atoms.

Natural occurrence

Naturally occurring decay heat is a significant source of the heat in the interior of the Earth

Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...

. Radioactive isotopes of uranium

Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...

, thorium

Thorium

Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....

 and potassium

Potassium

Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K and atomic number 19. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.Potassium and sodium are...

 are the primary contributors to this decay heat.

Power reactors in shutdown

In a typical nuclear fission

Nuclear fission

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into smaller parts , often producing free neutrons and photons , and releasing a tremendous amount of energy...

 reaction, 187 MeV

MEV

MeV and meV are multiples and submultiples of the electron volt unit referring to 1,000,000 eV and 0.001 eV, respectively.Mev or MEV may refer to:In entertainment:* Musica Elettronica Viva, an Italian musical group...

 of energy are released instantaneously in the form of kinetic energy

Kinetic energy

The kinetic energy of an object is the energy which it possesses due to its motion.It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes...

 from the fission products, kinetic energy from the fission neutrons, instantaneous gamma rays, or gamma rays from the capture of neutrons. An additional 23 MeV of energy are released at some time after fission from the beta decay

Beta decay

In nuclear physics, beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle is emitted from an atom. There are two types of beta decay: beta minus and beta plus. In the case of beta decay that produces an electron emission, it is referred to as beta minus , while in the case of a...

 of fission product

Fission product

Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus fissions. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons and a large release of energy in the form of heat , gamma rays and neutrinos. The...

s. About 10 MeV of the energy released from the beta decay

Beta decay

In nuclear physics, beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle is emitted from an atom. There are two types of beta decay: beta minus and beta plus. In the case of beta decay that produces an electron emission, it is referred to as beta minus , while in the case of a...

 of fission products is in the form of neutrinos, and since neutrinos are very weakly interacting, this 10 MeV of energy will not be deposited in the reactor core. This results in 13 MeV (6.5% of the total fission energy) being deposited in the reactor core after any given fission reaction has occurred.

When a nuclear reactor has been shut down

Shutdown (nuclear reactor)

In a nuclear reactor, shutdown refers to the state of the reactor when it is subcritical by at least a margin defined in the reactor's technical specifications...

, and nuclear fission is not occurring at a large scale, the major source of heat production will be due to the beta decay

Beta decay

In nuclear physics, beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle is emitted from an atom. There are two types of beta decay: beta minus and beta plus. In the case of beta decay that produces an electron emission, it is referred to as beta minus , while in the case of a...

 of these fission fragments. For this reason, at the moment of reactor shutdown, decay heat will be about 6.5% of the previous core power if the reactor has had a long and steady power history

Power history

Power History refers to the power of a nuclear reactor over an extended period of time. Power history is important for calculations and operations that involve decay heat and fission product poisons and to avoid the iodine pit during reactor shutdowns....

. About 1 hour after shutdown, the decay heat will be about 1.5% of the previous core power. After a day, the decay heat falls to 0.4%, and after a week it will be only 0.2%. The decay heat production rate will continue to slowly decrease over time; the decay curve depends upon the proportions of the various fission products in the core and upon their respective half-lives.  An approximation for the decay heat curve valid from 10 seconds to 100 days after shutdown is

where is the decay power, is the reactor power before shutdown, is the time since reactor start and is the time of reactor shutdown measured from the time of startup (in seconds). For an approach with a more direct physical basis, some models use the fundamental concept of radioactive decay

Radioactive decay

Radioactive decay is the process by which an atomic nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting ionizing particles . The emission is spontaneous, in that the atom decays without any physical interaction with another particle from outside the atom...

. Used nuclear fuel contains a large number of different isotopes that contribute to decay heat, which are all subject to the radioactive decay law, so some models consider decay heat to be a sum of exponential functions with different decay constants and initial contribution to the heat rate. A more accurate model would consider the effects of precursors, since many isotopes follow several steps in their radioactive decay chain

Decay chain

In nuclear science, the decay chain refers to the radioactive decay of different discrete radioactive decay products as a chained series of transformations...

, and the decay of daughter products will have a greater effect longer after shutdown.


The removal of the decay heat is a significant reactor safety concern, especially shortly after normal shutdown or following a loss-of-coolant accident. Failure to remove decay heat may cause the reactor core temperature to rise to dangerous levels and has caused nuclear accidents, including the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Fukushima I. The heat removal is usually achieved through several redundant and diverse systems, from which heat is removed via heat exchangers. Water is passed through the secondary side of the heat exchanger via the essential service water system which dissipates the heat into the 'ultimate heat sink', often a sea, river or large lake. In locations without a suitable body of water, the heat is dissipated into the air by recirculating the water via a cooling tower

Cooling tower

Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or in the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers rely...

. The failure of ESWS circulating pumps was one of the factors that endangered safety during the 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood

1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood

The 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood was a flood that took place on the evening of December 27, 1999. It was caused when a combination of the tide and high winds led to the sea walls of the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant in France being overwhelmed...

.

Spent fuel

After one year, typical spent nuclear fuel

Spent nuclear fuel

Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor...

 generates about 10 kW

Kw

kw or KW may refer to:* Kuwait, ISO 3166-1 country code** .kw, the country code top level domain for Kuwait* Kilowatt* Self-ionization of water Kw* Cornish language's ISO 639 code* Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario, Canada...

 of decay heat per tonne

Tonne

The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...

, decreasing to about 1 kW/t after ten years. Hence effective active or passive cooling for spent nuclear fuel is required for a number of years.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator

The decay heat of a radioisotope is used in an RTG

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator

A radioisotope thermoelectric generator is an electrical generator that obtains its power from radioactive decay. In such a device, the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material is converted into electricity by the Seebeck effect using an array of thermocouples.RTGs can be...

to make electrical power.

External links

• DOE fundamentals handbook - Decay heat, Nuclear physics and reactor theory - volume 2 of 2, module 4, page 61
• Decay Heat Estimates for MNR, page 2.