I understand that that the energy released from splitting atoms is used to heat up water into steam and turn a turbine, but how are the atoms actually split?
In: Engineering
Think of a Uranium atom like it’s sitting in a ditch on top of a hill. If you give it a little push it’ll roll down the hill, putting out much more energy than you put in to get it rolling.
The little push they need is a Neutron. There are plenty of isotopes called “startup neutron sources” available that spontaneously emit fast neutrons, but once it’s running, the source is the splitting uranium atoms themselves. They don’t just split in two, they might split into a few things and some of those leftover parts are extra Neutrons to go split other atoms.
How often this happens is based on density and heat, so in most reactor designs there are “control rods” that can be inserted to absorb neutrons if it gets too hot.
Latest Answers