– How do pressurized water reactors work?
In: 1
Water gets heated into steam, steem pressure drives turbine, turbine drives generator.
Steam then gets cooled and turned back into water and the cycle starts again.
The heat source can be nuclear or coal but since you said reactor, I assume you mean nuclear.
The ELI5 version: when certain materials are brought near each other, they heat up. A lot. This is how they heat the water to drive the system I described above.
A pressurized water reactor uses water under high pressure to keep the fuel cool. The water is circulated through the reactor by a pump. The water does not come into contact with the fuel, but transfers heat from the fuel to steam that is used to power a turbine.
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