Portal:Nuclear technology

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The Nuclear Technology Portal

Introduction

This symbol of radioactivity is internationally recognized.

• Nuclear technology is technology that involves the nuclear reactions of atomic nuclei. Among the notable nuclear technologies are nuclear reactors, nuclear medicine and nuclear weapons. It is also used, among other things, in smoke detectors and gun sights. (Full article...)
  
• Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by nuclear fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear power plants. Nuclear decay processes are used in niche applications such as radioisotope thermoelectric generators in some space probes such as Voyager 2. Reactors producing controlled fusion power have been operated since 1958 but have yet to generate net power and are not expected to be commercially available in the near future. (Full article...)
  
• A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb types release large quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. Nine sovereign states are believed to possess nuclear weapons as of 2026: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel. (Full article...)

General images -

The following are images from various nuclear technology-related articles on Wikipedia.

• 
  Edward Teller, often referred to as the "father of the hydrogen bomb" (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Mushroom cloud from the explosion of Castle Bravo, the largest nuclear weapon detonated by the US, in 1954 (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Following the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident since 1986, 50,000 households were displaced after radiation leaked into the air, soil and sea. Radiation checks led to bans of some shipments of vegetables and fish. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The Torness nuclear power station – an AGR (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Induced fission reaction. A neutron is absorbed by a uranium-235 nucleus, turning it briefly into an excited uranium-236 nucleus, with the excitation energy provided by the kinetic energy of the neutron plus the forces that bind the neutron. The uranium-236, in turn, splits into fast-moving lighter elements (fission products) and releases several free neutrons, one or more "prompt gamma rays" (not shown) and a (proportionally) large amount of kinetic energy. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, United States. MIRVed land-based ICBMs are considered destabilizing because they tend to put a premium on striking first. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  In thermal nuclear reactors (LWRs in specific), the coolant acts as a moderator that must slow the neutrons before they can be efficiently absorbed by the fuel. (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  The Trinity test of the Manhattan Project was the first detonation of a nuclear weapon, which led J. Robert Oppenheimer to recall verses from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one" ... "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds". (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The USSR and United States nuclear weapon stockpiles throughout the Cold War until 2015, with a precipitous drop in total numbers following the end of the Cold War in 1991. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The first light bulbs ever lit by electricity generated by nuclear power at EBR-1 at Argonne National Laboratory-West (now the Idaho National Laboratory), December 20, 1951. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The Ikata Nuclear Power Plant, a pressurized water reactor that cools by using a secondary coolant heat exchanger with a large body of water, an alternative cooling approach to large cooling towers (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The two basic fission weapon designs (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions of electricity supply technologies, median values calculated by IPCC (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Scaled-down model of TOPAZ nuclear reactor (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in their laboratory (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Three of the reactors at Fukushima I overheated, causing the coolant water to dissociate and led to the hydrogen explosions. This along with fuel meltdowns released large amounts of radioactive material into the air. (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Olkiluoto 3 under construction in 2009. It was the first EPR, a modernized PWR design, to start construction. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Primary coolant system showing reactor pressure vessel (red), steam generators (purple), pressurizer (blue), and pumps (green) in the three coolant loop Hualong One pressurized water reactor design (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  The town of Pripyat abandoned since 1986, with the Chernobyl plant and the Chernobyl New Safe Confinement arch in the distance (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Overhead view of the core of the RA-3 Research and Production Reactor (CNEA, Argentina) (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Proportions of the isotopes uranium-238 (blue) and uranium-235 (red) found in natural uranium and in enriched uranium for different applications. Light water reactors use 3–5% enriched uranium, while CANDU reactors work with natural uranium. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  A photograph of Sumiteru Taniguchi's back injuries taken in January 1946 by a US Marine photographer (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The number of nuclear warheads by country in 2024, based on an estimation by the Federation of American Scientists (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Animation of a Coulomb explosion in the case of a cluster of positively charged nuclei, akin to a cluster of fission fragments. Hue level of color is proportional to (larger) nuclei charge. Electrons (smaller) on this time-scale are seen only stroboscopically and the hue level is their kinetic energy. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  A demilitarized, commercial launch of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces R-36 ICBM; also known by the NATO reporting name: SS-18 Satan. Upon its first fielding in the late 1960s, the SS-18 remains the single highest throw weight missile delivery system ever built. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  NC State's PULSTAR Reactor is a 1 MW pool-type research reactor with 4% enriched, pin-type fuel consisting of UO₂ pellets in zircaloy cladding (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  A comparison of levelized cost of energy (LCOE) over time for nuclear power and other sources. While wind turbines and solar panels can be mass-produced and thus enjoy learning curve effects, nuclear are almost always one-of-a-kind projects due to the limited number of reactors being built. The source of this chart, Our World in Data notes that the costs presented here is the global average, and these costs were driven up by 2 projects in the United States. The organization recognises that the median cost of the most exported and produced nuclear energy facility in the 2010s the South Korean APR1400, remained "constant", including in export. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Anti-nuclear weapons protest march in Oxford, 1980 (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The basics of the Teller–Ulam design for a hydrogen bomb: a fission bomb uses radiation to compress and heat a separate section of fusion fuel. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Soviet OTR-21 Tochka missile. Capable of firing a 100-kiloton nuclear warhead a distance of 185 km (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Ballistic missile submarines have been of great strategic importance for the United States, Russia, and other nuclear powers since they entered service in the Cold War, as they can hide from reconnaissance satellites and fire their nuclear weapons with virtual impunity. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Typical composition of uranium dioxide fuel before and after approximately three years in the once-through nuclear fuel cycle of a LWR (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Anti-nuclear protest near nuclear waste disposal centre at Gorleben in northern Germany (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Reactor decay heat as a fraction of full power after the reactor shutdown, using two different correlations. To remove the decay heat, reactors need cooling after the shutdown of the fission reactions. A loss of the ability to remove decay heat caused the Fukushima accident. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  A schematic nuclear fission chain reaction. 1. A uranium-235 atom absorbs a neutron and fissions into two new atoms (fission fragments), releasing three new neutrons and some binding energy. 2. One of those neutrons is absorbed by an atom of uranium-238 and does not continue the reaction. Another neutron is simply lost and does not collide with anything, also not continuing the reaction. However, the one neutron does collide with an atom of uranium-235, which then fissions and releases two neutrons and some binding energy. 3. Both of those neutrons collide with uranium-235 atoms, each of which fissions and releases between one and three neutrons, which can then continue the reaction. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  Nuclear waste flasks generated by the United States during the Cold War are stored underground at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. The facility is seen as a potential demonstration for storing spent fuel from civilian reactors. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Montage of an inert test of a United States Trident SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missile), from submerged to the terminal, or re-entry phase, of the multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant in Switzerland (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The now decommissioned United States' Peacekeeper missile was an ICBM developed to replace the Minuteman missile in the late 1980s. Each missile, like the heavier lift Russian SS-18 Satan, could contain up to ten nuclear warheads (shown in red), each of which could be aimed at a different target. A factor in the development of MIRVs was to make complete missile defense difficult for an enemy country. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Drawing of the first artificial reactor, Chicago Pile-1 (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  The Superphénix, closed in 1998, was one of the few FBRs (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  This view of downtown Las Vegas shows a mushroom cloud in the background. Scenes such as this were typical during the 1950s. From 1951 to 1962 the government conducted 100 atmospheric tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The map shows the commercial nuclear power plants in the world. Research reactors are not considered nuclear power plants.

    Operating reactors, building new reactors

    Operating reactors, planning new build

    No reactors, building new reactors

    No reactors, new in planning

    Operating reactors, stable

    Operating reactors, decided on phase-out

    Civil nuclear power is illegal

    No reactors

  (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Some of the Chicago Pile Team, including Enrico Fermi (leftmost man front row) and Leó Szilárd (rightmost man middle row) (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  An example of an induced nuclear fission event. A neutron is absorbed by the nucleus of a uranium-235 atom, which in turn splits into fast-moving lighter elements (fission products) and free neutrons. Though both reactors and nuclear weapons rely on nuclear chain reactions, the rate of reactions in a reactor is much slower than in a bomb. (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  The first nuclear weapons were gravity bombs, such as the "Fat Man" weapon dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. They were large and could only be delivered by heavy bomber aircraft (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Activity of spent UOx fuel in comparison to the activity of natural uranium ore over time (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Protest in Bonn against the nuclear arms race between the US/NATO and the Warsaw Pact, 1981 (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The nuclear fuel cycle begins when uranium is mined, enriched, and manufactured into nuclear fuel (1), which is delivered to a nuclear power plant. After use, the spent fuel is delivered to a reprocessing plant (2) or to a final repository (3). In nuclear reprocessing, 95% of spent fuel can potentially be recycled to be returned to use in a power plant (4). (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner in 1912 (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  The cooling towers of the Philippsburg Nuclear Power Plant in Germany (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  The stages of binary fission in a liquid drop model. Energy input deforms the nucleus into a fat "cigar" shape, then a "peanut" shape, followed by binary fission as the two lobes exceed the short-range nuclear force attraction distance, and are then pushed apart and away by their electrical charge. In the liquid drop model, the two fission fragments are predicted to be the same size. The nuclear shell model allows for them to differ in size, as usually experimentally observed. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  The nuclear fission display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. The table and instruments are originals, but would not have been together in the same room. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  Fission product yields by mass for thermal neutron fission of uranium-235, plutonium-239, a combination of the two typical of current nuclear power reactors, and uranium-233, used in the thorium cycle (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  The "curve of binding energy": A graph of binding energy per nucleon of common isotopes. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  UN vote on adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons on July 7, 2017
  

    Yes

    No

    Did not vote

  (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  The mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on 9 August 1945 rose over 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) above the bomb's hypocenter, which killed an estimated 39,000 people. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  The Calder Hall nuclear power station in the United Kingdom, the world's first commercial nuclear power station (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The CANDU Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  More than 2,000 nuclear explosions have been conducted in more than a dozen different sites around the world. Red Russia/Soviet Union, blue France, light blue United States, violet Britain, yellow China, orange India, brown Pakistan, green North Korea and light green (territories exposed to nuclear bombs). The black dot indicates the location of the Vela incident. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Ukrainian workers use equipment provided by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency to dismantle a Soviet-era missile silo. After the end of the Cold War, Ukraine and the other non-Russian, post-Soviet republics relinquished Soviet nuclear stockpiles to Russia. (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Death rates per unit of electricity production for different energy sources (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The launching ceremony of USS Nautilus January 1954. In 1958 it would become the first vessel to reach the North Pole. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Dry cask storage vessels storing spent nuclear fuel assemblies (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Treatment of the interior part of a VVER-1000 reactor frame at Atommash (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Nuclear fuel assemblies being inspected before entering a pressurized water reactor in the United States (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The Magnox Sizewell A nuclear power station (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  A visual representation of an induced nuclear fission event where a slow-moving neutron is absorbed by the nucleus of a uranium-235 atom, which fissions into two fast-moving lighter elements (fission products) and additional neutrons. Most of the energy released is in the form of the kinetic velocities of the fission products and the neutrons. (from Nuclear fission)
• 
  Diablo Canyon – a PWR (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  Schematic of the ITER tokamak under construction in France (from Nuclear power)
• 
  Demonstration against nuclear testing in Lyon, France, in the 1980s (from Nuclear weapon)
• 
  Most waste packaging, small-scale experimental fuel recycling chemistry and radiopharmaceutical refinement is conducted within remote-handled hot cells. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The US has been counting on private industry to lead in fusion power, while more recently China's government has made fusion a national priority. In 2025, $2.1 billion was poured into a single Chinese state-owned fusion company, an amount two and a half times the U.S. Energy Department's annual fusion budget. (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The Chicago Pile, the first artificial nuclear reactor, built in secrecy at the University of Chicago in 1942 during World War II as part of the US's Manhattan Project (from Nuclear reactor)
• 
  The multi-mission radioisotope thermoelectric generator (MMRTG), used in several space missions such as the Curiosity Mars rover (from Nuclear power)
• 
  The Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant – a RBMK type (closed 2009) (from Nuclear reactor)

Selected article -

The Rocky Flats Plant, a former United States nuclear weapons production facility located about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of Denver, Colorado, caused radioactive contamination (primarily from plutonium, americium, and uranium) within and outside its boundaries. The contamination primarily resulted from two major plutonium fires in 1957 and 1969 (plutonium is pyrophoric, and shavings can spontaneously combust) and from wind-blown plutonium that leaked from barrels of radioactive waste. Much lower concentrations of radioactive isotopes were released throughout the operational life of the plant from 1952 to 1992, from smaller accidents and from normal operational releases of plutonium particles too small to be filtered. Prevailing winds from the plant carried airborne contamination south and east, into populated areas northwest of Denver.

The contamination of the Denver area by plutonium from the fires and other sources was not publicly reported until the 1970s. According to a 1972 study coauthored by Edward Martell, "In the more densely populated areas of Denver, the Pu contamination level in surface soils is several times fallout", and the plutonium contamination "just east of the Rocky Flats plant ranges up to hundreds of times that from nuclear tests." As noted by Carl Johnson in Ambio, "Exposures of a large population in the Denver area to plutonium and other radionuclides in the exhaust plumes from the plant date back to 1953."

Weapons production at the plant was halted after a combined FBI and EPA raid in 1989 and years of protests. The plant has since been shut down, with its buildings demolished and completely removed from the site. The Rocky Flats Plant was declared a Superfund site in 1989 and began its transformation to a cleanup site in February 1992. Removal of the plant and surface contamination was largely completed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Nearly all underground contamination was left in place, and measurable radioactive environmental contamination in and around Rocky Flats will probably persist for thousands of years. The land formerly occupied by the plant is now the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Plans to make this refuge accessible for recreation have been repeatedly delayed due to lack of funding and protested by citizen organizations.

The Department of Energy continues to fund monitoring of the site, but private groups and researchers remain concerned about the extent and long-term public health consequences of the contamination. Estimates of the public health risk caused by the contamination vary significantly, with accusations that the United States government is being too secretive and that citizen activists are being alarmist. (Full article...)

More selected articles

Selected picture -

Credit: National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

TRINITY PHOTOGRAPH - Alamogordo, NM - Trinity Test, July 16, 1945 - Vital Components are loaded at the old McDonald Ranch for the trip to the Trinity test site.

Did you know?

• ... that a nuclear reactor was nearly built at the New York Hall of Science, but the money for the institution instead went to Yankee Stadium?
• ... that oxalate salts of plutonium and neptunium, which have nuclear-power applications, can be produced in reactions using a form of vitamin C?
• ... that John D. Hoffman of the Special Engineer Detachment was awarded the Soldier's Medal, the US Army's highest non-combat decoration and the only one given to a member of the Manhattan District?
• ... that the role of the British Mobile Defence Corps was to carry out rescue work in the aftermath of a nuclear attack?
• ... that Harry S. Truman declined a mayor's suggestion to fire a nuclear bomb at a hurricane?
• ... that an Iowa TV station was paid for by surplus Manhattan Project funds?

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Selected biography -

George Bogdanovich Kistiakowsky (Russian: Георгий Богданович Кистяковский, Ukrainian: Георгій Богданович Кістяківський, romanized: Heorhii Bohdanovych Kistiakivskyi; December 1 [O.S. November 18] 1900 – December 7, 1982) was a Ukrainian-American physical chemistry professor at Harvard who participated in the Manhattan Project and later served as President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Science Advisor.

Born in Boyarka in the old Russian Empire, into "an old Ukrainian Cossack family which was part of the intellectual elite in pre-revolutionary Russia", Kistiakowsky fled his homeland during the Russian Civil War. He made his way to Germany, where he earned his PhD in physical chemistry under the supervision of Max Bodenstein at the University of Berlin. He emigrated to the United States in 1926, where he joined the faculty of Harvard University in 1930, and became a citizen in 1933.

During World War II, Kistiakowsky was the head of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) section responsible for the development of explosives, and the technical director of the Explosives Research Laboratory (ERL), where he oversaw the development of new explosives, including RDX and HMX. He was involved in research into the hydrodynamic theory of explosions, and the development of shaped charges. In October 1943, he was brought into the Manhattan Project as a consultant. He was soon placed in charge of X Division, which was responsible for the development of the explosive lenses necessary for an implosion-type nuclear weapon. In July 1945, he watched the first atomic explosion in the Trinity test. A few weeks later, another implosion-type weapon (Fat Man) was dropped on Nagasaki.

From 1962 to 1965, Kistiakowsky chaired the National Academy of Sciences's Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy (COSEPUP), and was its vice president from 1965 to 1973. He severed his connections with the government in protest against the war in Vietnam, and became active in an antiwar organization, the Council for a Livable World, becoming its chairman in 1977. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

Nuclear technology news

16 June 2026 – Middle Eastern crisis

Hezbollah states that it received assurances from Iran that the withdrawal of Israeli troops from occupied southern Lebanon will be a demand in the next phase of negotiations with the United States, before any deal about Iran's nuclear program. (Al Jazeera)

12 June 2026 – 2026 Iran war

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi says that a ceasefire deal with the U.S. to extend the ceasefire, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and launch negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program has "never been closer". (Axios)

8 June 2026 –

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons reports that the world's nine nuclear-armed states increased spending on nuclear weapons by nearly 20% to US$119 billion, the highest annual total on record, in 2025. (AFP via Philippine Daily Inquirer)

7 June 2026 – Middle Eastern crisis

Nuclear program of Iran

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