Eli5: How are Nuclear Weapons different from Nuclear Power Plants?
In: Physics
A nuclear power plant is nothing more than a steam factory. It takes something that’s hot (the nuclear material) and uses it to heat up water into steam and then the steam spins a turbine that creates electricity. You can do this with anything that is hot and can heat up water into steam. You could burn things, like oil or coal or trash or wood. We just like to use nuclear material because we can keep it hot for a LONG LONG LONG time without needing to replace it, unlike the other materials.
A nuclear explosion is a very (very) tightly controlled runaway reaction of a small amount of material using explosives to compact and crush the material in a very specific manner. You cannot just accidentally have a nuclear explosion. It needs to be done in a very particular way to have the desired effects.
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