Question

How long would it take to obtain a temperature increase of 2000 degrees celcius, which could cause some metals holding the radioactive materials to melt?

Answer 1

Incomplete question.

Complete question given below

a) 2.7933 C/s

b) 714.45 s

Step-by-step explanation:

Even when shut down after a period of normal use, a large commercial nuclear reactor transfers thermal energy at the rate of 150 MW by the radioactive decay of fission products. This heat transfer causes a rapid increase in temperature if the cooling system fails {1 watt = 1 joule/second or 1 W = 1 J/s and 1 MW = 1 megawatt.

(a) Calculate the rate of temperature increase in degrees Celsius per second if the mass of the reactor core is 1.60105*10^6 kg and it has an average specific heat of 0.3349 kJ/kgº.

(b) How long would it take to obtain a temperature increase of which could cause some metals holding the radioactive materials to melt?

Part a)

`Q_(rate) = m*c*(dT)/(dt)\\(dT)/(dt) = (Q_(rate))/(m*c) \\\\(dT)/(dt) = (150*10^6)/(1.6 * 10^5*334.9) \\\\(dT)/(dt) = 2.7993 C/s`

Part b)

`dt = (dT)/(2.7993) \\\\dt = (2000)/(2.7993) \\\\dt = 714.45 s`