Magnox

Magnox is a now-obsolete type of nuclear power reactor, which was designed in the United Kingdom and was exported to other countries, both as a power plant and, when operated accordingly, as a producer of plutonium for nuclear weapons. The name magnox comes from the magnesium-aluminium alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor.

General description

Magnox reactors are pressurised, carbon dioxide cooled, graphite moderated reactors using natural uranium (i.e., unenriched) as fuel and magnox alloy as fuel cladding. Boron-steel control rods were used. The design was continuously refined, and very few units are identical. Early reactors have steel pressure vessels, while later units (Oldbury and Wylfa) are of prestressed concrete; some are cylindrical in design, but most are spherical. Working pressure varies from 6.9 to 19.35 bar for the steel pressure vessels, and the two prestressed concrete designs operated at 24.8 and 27 bar. No British construction company at the time was large enough to build all the power stations, so various competing consortia were involved, adding to the differences between the stations; for example nearly every power station used a different design of Magnox fuel element.

Magnox (alloy)

Magnox is an alloy—mainly of magnesium with small amounts of aluminium and other metals—used in cladding unenriched uranium metal fuel with a non-oxidising covering to contain fission products in nuclear reactors. Magnox is short for Magnesium non-oxidising. This material has the advantage of a low neutron capture cross section, but has two major disadvantages:

The magnox alloy Al80 has a composition of 0.8% aluminium and 0.004% beryllium.

See also

References

Magnox (disambiguation)

Magnox can refer to: