How does a nuclear power plant generate electricity? Where does the radiation come from when there are failures?
In: Chemistry
– Nuclear reaction emit a lot of heat and so we can use that heat to generate steam, which can pass through a turbine that spin and generate electricity. It’s the same way we generate electricity from fossil fuel.
– Nuclear plant use Uranium, which we find in natural in two form U238 and U235. They respectively have an half life of 4.5 billion years and 700 million years. So they take a really long time to decay and are not really dangerous. But if you emit fast neutron near them they can absorb that neutron. If a neutron hit some of that Uranium with enough energy it will split it. This emit radiation, which we absorb as heat, but it also create two smaller atoms that are a lot more unstable than natural uranium and emit more dangerous radiation. Most of our nuclear power plant use pressurise water, to control the reaction. The reason is that water is really good at that job but at high temperature it become a gas, so we need to pressurize it to keep using it in the hot reactor. The thing is that if there is a problem with the water, the reaction isn’t keep under control, the temperature rise and can melt the core which can spread the radioactive material since it melt the containement.
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