How hot can a nuclear reactor get?

Quitaque

What is the temperature for atomic reactors that involves uranium and plutonium?



Acworth

The steam coming from a nuclear reactor is about 450°C. Within the reactor are fuel assemblies which are made advised about kindling rods. Each fuel shafd is on every side the diameter cognizant of a pencil or your fleeting pinky finger. The outwabd of the rod is a zirconium alloy. Inside the rod is a nosegay of uranium oxide pellets. Each rod is about 12 feet long. The hottest temperature in the centre is the nucleus advised about the uranium oxide pellets which can obtain splinter to close by 600°C. That's sufficient, though, because the uranium oxide is basically a hunk in on ceramic that behind stand the heat. From inside the fuel pellet grate on nerves the outwabd of the fuel stake, the temperature drops about 100 degrees. This is satisfying, because the zirconium alloy cladding bequeath the rod is reactive to overly much heat. (It won't deliquesce, but it will chink due to embrittlement if it gets immoderately hot concerning unduly long.) All that heat goes into the water cooling the core. The water is under spur, to confirm sure it doesn't boil. (Unless it's a boiling water reactor, in days of old it is lethargic pressurized, apart from the pressure controls the revile of provoked.)Whether the reactor uses uranium or plutonium, the temperatures are the same because the zirconium alloy is the limiting factor.



Melbourne

Depends on the type of fission reactor. for water reactors, it is typically 320C, but then there are designs to have supercritical water at 450 C, then there are sodium and salt cooled reactor designs that have outlet of 600-750 C, Above were liquid cooled fission reactors, there are many designs for gas cooled reactors that can reach up to 1000C. As mentioned by other answers, the actual fuel itself in the core can get as hot as 1800C.



Bonnieville

It depends on the reactor design and what component you're measuring. The wikipedia article on the reactor at Chernobyl has information on design limits for temperature of several components for that setup. The fuel pellets themselves had a design limit of 2100C, but other components need to be kept much cooler. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/RBMK



Orangetree

So they dont melt everything Nuclear reactors have to stay at a certain temperature but of they really wanted to im sure they coudl make them as hot as the surface of the sun.