Abstract
This chapter describes the basic design and operation of the different types of nuclear reactor used in the UK to provide electrical power to the National Grid. Generation started at Calder Hall in 1956, followed initially by rather similar Magnox reactors and later by advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs). In 1995, a pressurised water reactor (PWR) was commissioned at Sizewell. Issues treated involve the choice of fuel, fuel clad, moderator and coolant and specific concerns relating to effects of neutron irradiation on the brittle fracture of steel reactor pressure vessels (RPVs), cracking in graphite moderator blocks, and both stress-relief cracking and under-clad cracking in PWR RPVs., A brief account is given of ‘Generation IV’ systems and of the fusion reactor.
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